Ink: Given
June 1, 2021
Mami has skin like peaches and cream.
By chance, the day I was born I was sealed with the same fate
Neither Papi, my siblings, nor my cousins look like us.
The color of our skin built a barrier between each child, deeper than the naked eye could catch
Declared the golden child of the family
Because it was easier to make out the rosy color of my cheeks than theirs
Of course it was never written down on paper, no one dare say it outloud, things just happened
the way they did
Look at what a beautiful young lady she’s become from she has gotten so big since I last saw her
Watching tv and being compared to any girl on the screen whose only commonality we had was
the paleness of our skin, my daughter is gonna be a model one day
We are born with the same blood yet I grew up in a space where my lighter complexion
outshined theirs
Of course there was no rational reason behind why this happened, it just did.
It’s proudly said that Dominicans come in all colors
Yet no one ever teaches us that all those colors are just as beautiful as the other
It took my entire childhood and the parting of the people closest to me to learn that.
