White and Blue / Outta Luck

JISELLE ABRAHAM

I wanted my final anthology pieces to illustrate the feelings that people of color might feel. Everybody’s experience is different, but we all have a universal understanding of what it can be like.

White and Blue

Simple in blue

Plain in white

Living in my world

Is a brownish delight

I can see your eyes

Judge my fate

Based on my skin

And based on your hate.

Heavy in power

Low in fear

You think my world

Is too much to bear

That’s where you’re wrong

And that’s ok

How can you feel a statue

When it says “Do Not Touch”

In the display?

I cope with my problems

I live on strong

I live my life with passion

And in faith too

Your life may be pearls and diamonds

But mine is ruled by White

And scared of Blue.

Outta Luck

I had so much patience for you

I let you back in

And that’s the stupidest

I’ve ever been

I should’ve just stopped

I should’ve just listened

To the blocked-out voices that told me

You were no good

I never thought that you could do this to me

How stupid could I be?

I was too busy

Blocking out the voices

When it should’ve been you

I asked you

What I was to you, and you said

you didn’t know.

Six months for an

i don’t know.

I waited six months to hear that none of it existed

That I just pictured

All the kissing

All the missing

You’ve got to be fucking kidding

You dragged me

All this way

To tell me I didn’t matter

And in that moment

My whole body shattered

But you didn’t give a fuck

And if I had a buck for every fuck you gave

I’d be outta luck