Jim Crow Crayons

How
arrogant
to name
a crayon: FLESH.
Whose? Not mine or yours.
The color, a blur of pink and peach,
draws an American fiction, a land where light-skinned kids fill every playground.


No
playmates
speaking Spanish
answering to names
not found in the books
about Dick and Jane. No friends from families
with slavery in their history, whose stories for children explore shtetls or mosques.


One
shade,
one choice.
Scope so slim
but so wide in hubris.
The box denies all birthrights beyond Europe's borders,
its mix of colors segregated until the muscle of history opens the lid.