RAINBOW WOMAN
Her brown skin came from the earth
Every scarlet dawn she returns to the earth
And with the orange dusk she returns home
Toiling and tilling in the
To grow yellow mealies for her little kiddies
They return home every day with some new shade of dirt
They are also returning to earth
Perhaps the young ones know when life is grey too
Her big heart is full of gold
Which she gives away freely
They all take a little piece
The hulk black man she calls a husband expects a colorful meal every day
Expects her to be ready for him every night
Unconcerned with cousin Red, he will not wait for her to leave
All he wants is the warm pink that welcomes him
The color purple seems to be hers now
Beautiful chocolate skin shaded with baggy violet glasses
She says sleep is for the virgin girls and deflowered girls
Roaming the streets in their rainbow outfits partying endlessly
Returning home at midnight blue
Clear and brown liquor steadily distorting their minds
She says a real woman never sleeps
She says too much sleep will take away youth from her face
Smooth chocolate becomes wrinkled coffee
Light and dark has become her new clock
Under her skin flows the red blood and clear tears of a spirited woman
Pink sores and black scars evidence of the never ending work she does
Her rough hands gently pluck the green leaves from her garden
Not so many acres wide and long
But enough for tonight and tomorrow
Relish to relish in the fact her family will survive
Some days she will be in the multitude at the marketplace
She laughs as she scratches her reddish grey hair
Trying to calculate the greens, oranges and blues she has made today
School fees for the children, money for her mother. . .
The little left she keeps for herself
She has never fed from a silver spoon
Silver rusty pots cook her poultry meals
She prays to the blue sky above that her children live a more bright life than she
Life of a rainbow woman
Do not be color-blind to it
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