Thirty Springs

-------Thirty Springs-------

Imprinted within me

are generations of colored people.

Beneath the skin, 

pressed like footsteps into mud 

before the frost.

I am not white, but human;

flawed by 

judgement,

beautiful by the courage 

to leave it.

For thirty Springs 

the earth has thawed around me,

taking back every step 

but leaving whole 

the memory of walking.

Through empathy and crystalline heaves

the lines between here

and them 

and the past

disappear.

We are each a moment 

in the ever-changing.

A colorful

fleeting child 

of the seasons.

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