Light has always had the ability to drive
out darkness, I’ve been told.

It’s easy for me to believe this when my
chocolate skin was always preferred
second compared to the boys whose skin
was like the sun, shining upon the faces of
the girls my age.

To them, I was the darkness creeping its
way into their presence, while the light-
skinned boys were the gold they were
looking for, the sunshine they needed.

I had to live in the shadows and pray that
I would get my shot, only to watch the
trigger be pulled on my heart because I
was not quite the preferred shade.

It was then I started learning that despite
the heaven I can offer, some fallen angels
dressed in yellow flesh would always be
their favorite paradise.

“Dark Boy”

How can he know how to love you
when you are clueless about how to
love yourself?

Giving a man a job that you cannot
do shouldn’t make him
incompetent.

You’ve failed at it, why must you
toss away the credit he deserves for
trying?

Why don’t you help him study you,
open your soul for him to learn
from the pieces of you that you do
know how to treat well?

Perhaps that could be a start to
both of you learning to let love
have its way with the two of you.

They say,

“She is more than an eye candy,

she is soul food.”

I agree

And me...

“I am more than a snack,

I am a full course meal

made from a chivalrous recipe.”

There are men who will not forfeit
happiness for fleeting moments of
excitement.

Those are the men who have tasted the
type of love that satisfies them, yet
they could never become full on it.

Those are the men who find reasons to
call

their woman beautiful daily.

Those are men who prefer to be slaves
to love rather than live as masters of
lust.

Manhood was not stolen from you, only
parts of you have been explored and
exploited by enemies who have presented
themselves as friends.

Those parts of you are not meant to be
colonized by darkness, they are not meant to
remind you that you are weak and useless.

Dear boy,

you cannot walk on this earth with the
weight of such a past pinning you down.

Climb I tell you,

climb out of the cave of, “Why me?”

Crawl out of the jungle of, “Do I deserve to
live?”

Do not let their evil acts make you out to be
a lifeless soul.

There is strength on the other side; there are
rivers of joy, there is a field of smiles, there
are houses made out of love, and there is
freedom on the other side.

You must get to the other side.

You must not grow cold and numb, it will
only keep your legs from ever truly growing
forward.

And yes, they may consider you less of a
victim than the girls who’ve been chewed
apart by this sin, and that will always make
it harder to spit it out.

Let the truth find its way out of your mouth
and breathe; you can rise without being
acknowledged.

Rise my boy, rise.