Throwback your shoulder
puff out your chest,
accentuate your waist,
but remember you are not a princess or a Barbie doll,
there are none that look like you,
you still have to look realistic.
Keep a smile on your face & do not break eye contact,
Learn to keep a good posture
even when the world spits in your face,
keep your lips glossed and appear full,
and learn how to codeswitch your appearance for those around you
to smile more around your white peers,
smile carelessly
like you’ve earned your keep&
everything you own without any handouts
around your black and brown peers
they can tell when you’re trying too hard, but
they also know when you’re not trying hard enough.
Speak properly around both of them,
your white peers will think you’re talking ghetto &
your black/brown peers will think you sound white if you don’t.
Learn how to speak with your eyes and not
as much with your mouth.
When people look at you confused they're most likely wondering
what you’re mixed with or what gives you the right here trying to fit in
with them, they’ll listen to anything you have to say.
Learn not to say a word
unless the person is deserving,
that is why you deal with what
you deal with today
because your words are like the wind
it blows with no direction
just looking for an ear canal or a branch
to stop its travel,
people like you are better to be seen
not heard,
to be awed like a piece of art,
touched with consent
try to remember that
the next time something doesn't feel,
"just right to you".
Learn to keep a good posture
even when they spit in your face,
or call you by your name,
thank them every time they call you Christian or Christen,
even when they ask you countlessly
if your name starts with a “C” or “K”
or ask you if your name ends with an “an” or “en”,
cause as long as you’re correcting them then
there's less of a chance that you’ll ever forget it,
Thank them every time they get it right on the first
try or when they tell you that it's spelled uniquely.
do not correct them,
this is not your fight.
Stop acting
like they think you would act,
don't act too confident,
don't act like at the drop of a hat you could
have someone at your feet ready
to do your bidding,
stop acting like life is a struggle,
you're going to school full time, but
only have a part-time job, but yet
you still turn around and say that you
are doing all that you can
so what you can't sleep
drink coffee in the morning,
drink some espresso in the afternoon and
jug back an energy drink right behind it, but
still have no energy by
the time 3:00 rolls around,
still don't have enough energy
to try to force yourself
to close your eyes at night, but
what's new, this is not a struggle
you have plenty that
is still needed to be done.
Learn to keep a good posture
even when they spit in your face,
this is not your skin complexion's fight,
this is a fight more like clockwork that
you should already expect to fight
this is normal, stop acting surprised.
Speak your mind, but only on paper
because that's all you'll ever be good for as a writer.
Learn to keep a good posture
even when they spit in your face,
even when you go home and tell your parents
about what you have to go through, but
will never understand from your point of view,
and they'll never understand how people have said that with your eyes
if you just bat them, boys would go crazy,
they're never gonna understand that with
your complexion no one in your community is gonna trust you,
and everyone else from every other community is going to hate you,
they'll never understand how you feel,
how do you worry about the reasons why people are friends with you
because the past has proven people are out to use and break you
like a romcom popular girl,
this is not your skin complexion's fight,
it's just a fight you haven't learned how to give up from yet,
a fight where you should be a middle ground, instead of a battleground ...
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