Why Bye Color
written by: C.R. Daugherty
Why fret over a hue of man,
or stress half-cocked mankind?
Why not define other than color
and leave the bigotry behind?
Why not drop all prejudice by
the wayside, and look forward
to a hopeful tomorrow?
Why not turn off the television
and radio occasionally and to
the Buddha borrow?
My color is moontan, my cat
the same, though neither of us
resemble by shade.
Water, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen
is that of which we are made.
If we had to identify by hues
seen by the eye, we would all be
variegated tones, only having in
common similarly colored bloody
holy bones.
Rather than dominating the field
by imaginary shades of skin, we
can simply address the ink so quite
of precious melannin.
I am native to Senoia, Georgia,
America to boot.
When it comes to
tossing horsehide inflations,
for whose home team do we root?
There is an idea that we can all
be native by design and locale of
birth,
regardless the plot of spangled rock
bearding the facies of Earth.
It may seem offensive from one
perspective to name every human
native.
But if there even be this outlook,
it come from mine eye while reading
this poem consecrative.
We waste so much; we read so little.
We dabble in social media strife.
We worry virginity, inevitabilities,
and finding the most comely wife.
We want the harmful; we hate the help.
The easiest way seems appealing.
The level of stereotype over which
people destroy things can leave the
intellect reeling.
If I had a wish or a prayer or as
southerners sometimes say,
‘my druthers’,
I would ask that we all view one
another as native sisters and brothers.
- 88 Quatrain Verse on Poetics - February 20, 2023
- Why Bye Color - October 14, 2022
- Ariel, Bless Us - April 22, 2022
