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The Dark One is My Slave
The dark one is my slave
Thats what the lady on Ricky Lake said.
Because the guests
were battling so much
Fussin about the same old tired stuff
We black folks argue about
The Willie Lynch syndrome,
Thats what some people call it
Ya know their lines
That girls cute to be dark,
Hes with her cuz shes
light
Not smart.
And they say my boys with good hair
Get the girls.
True Afro-Americans got naps,
Not
natural curls
Such harsh words made that woman sad
And I got upset,
Staring at that tube
Hearing that
same rhetoric
Knowing theres still some
Some black folks
That feels that way
Even in 2001, even today
So that gentlewoman was compelled
To tell that audience
Something that I never heard
Something I never knew
She said when our people were first emancipated
And we were loosed from slavery
Set free
The light Negroes
and the dark Negroes
Would travel in groups
They were all headed north
Searching for a better life with a common
goal
And the fair ones, the ones who could pass
Would look out for the dark brothers
When whites would harass
them,
Entreating them
Asking them why they kept company with a nigger
To protect their brothers, to keep them
from harm
To continue safely, to make their way
The light skins Negroes would simply say,
That dark one used to
be my slave
PUBLISHED POEMS
The following poems have been published on the internet
Lori Peterson's poems:
1.
The Dark One is My Slave (published on timbooktu.com)
2. Push/Pull (published on timbooktu.com)
3. Coal Girl
(published on timbooktu.com)
(This poem was also entered in the defpoetryjam.com contest as Variations on a Sista's
Skin)
4. The Spotlight is On Me. (published on nubianchronicles.com in May 2001)
5. Girl's Rape (won June 2001
defpoetryjam.com contest)
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