Musings from Spotted Minds

I will be reading this poem at the So Going Places event this Saturday in Leipzig, Germany. I have included an audio recording if you want to listen to the poem.

A Brown Cinderella

He says, “Your skin is like honey against my pale, freckled body.”
She says, “I'm brown.”
He frowns, tilts her chin,
“Your eyes are chocolate delights.”
She says, “Like my skin, they're brown.”
He can't understand why she is reluctant to receive his loving praises
After all he’s Prince Charming, John Smith, her white knight in shiny armor
And she’s a brown Cinderella, Pocahontas, his dark-skinned amor  
He believes these are the insecurities of being a girl
Because he is a foreigner to her world

As he holds her tiny hands
She wonders what metaphors he equates with the other parts of her body
What he calls the calluses on her fingers           
Where she held the broom she swept with daily
In the rooms of the people of his society
Or if he thinks the cracked skin of her knees where she scrubbed their floors is sexy 
Or perhaps he adores her coarse feet
She received when she could only afford cheap over quality

Is her Prince Charming blinded by a fantasy?
Another opportunity to be the white knight rescuing the dark-skinned beauty
Because for her this will never be a fairy tale
The clock will always strike 12
And she will always be reminded she is brown, when he sees honey
And the clock strikes 12
When his mother says she’s after his money
And the clock strikes 12
When his friends equate brown with poor and ugly
And the clock strikes 12
When his father asks why her people are so dirty
And the clock strikes 12
When his grandparents wonder why her parents are so tacky
And the clock strikes 12
When the land she calls home says swim back to your own country
But by 12 he sleeps and dreams of honey skin
He believes he can kiss away society’s sins
And turn this dark-skinned temptress into his princess

© 2010 by Shelly Sanchez

Here's the image that was recently published in the so social club e mini mag!