Challenge
Write about a person, place, or thing related to Black History. Dead or alive. Real or imagined. Offensive or uplifting. Make the reader feel deeply about the Black experience in America, even if you are not Black. The winner will receive $50 cash money from me, and be featured on my social media platforms.
Shades
The colours of my world
ardent orange and green
were shades apart
and hungry to be seen.
Without shouted slights
and the colours’ mark
strangers looked twice
before finding us out.
We wore colours to fight
And also to grieve
Embroidered, wreathed
on chests and sleeves.
Simple chances of birth
punctuated our hate
and our side was chosen
by the writing of fate.
History is just old news
but the bands and fights
guns and bullets too
kept the banners bright.
We were enslaved
And let difference in
as though our shades
were painted on skin.