REALLY!?

Valerie Marquez

At school…
They excluded me from their games
They called me names
That was hard to hear
Saying…
“You’re not one of us.”
“Go back to where you came from.”
They pulled my hair
Saying…
“Err, It feels like wire wool, a Brillo pad.”
“A toilet brush, even.”
Always taunting and making fun
I wasn’t permitted to sit beside them at lunch
And made to sit some distance away…
Alone 
Yet when we were home
Living almost next door to each other
I was their new best friend
Confused?
They asked 
“If I scrubbed my skin with bleach, would I be the same as them?”
They told me, to do them a favour
And get back on my jam jar 
I was baffled?
Fast forward to present day
Now an adult
 The neighbours tell me 
“We don’t see you as black!”
“You’re not like…THEM.”
THEM?
THEM?!
Confused?
I am!  

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