My dear brown body,
How are you?
How’ve you been?
I wonder how you feel, after all these years of being on the receiving end of derision and ridicule.
Remember when baba called you “blackie”.
“Black, just like your mother,” he’d say.
Until I became convinced that I was hideous and ugly?
And nobody would love me because I was black?
Remember when that piece of shit put his hand on my face, like I was the blackened bits at the bottom of a pot, and said, “How are you so dark?”
Of course you remember.
But we’ve endured a lot together.
And I don’t think you’re sad anymore.
Because you know you’re beautiful.
And I believe in your beauty.
It took me time to trust you and love you.
I can’t imagine being any other color now.
I’m sorry it took me a long time to come to terms with you and accept you as you are.
But don’t be upset.
We still have the rest of our lives to love each other.
I’m sorry about the things you had to listen to.
The racism you faced.
I love you.
And I’ll always be there to support, love, and protect you.