Black, White or Other

7 Comments

Black, White or Other

The Registration Card asked
my name.
"Easy"' I thought.
My name has told others
who I am from my birth.
It is who I present to others.

Now it asks my address.
It seeks to locate me.
Where is my place to be?
"Easy again."
My location is numbered
and named.
I am mapped on Google
or any of the other "location" software.

Now it digs deeper.
It searches my gender.
Is it physiology or sexuality?
it needs to know?
Am I now to be further known?
by how I am designed;
by how my genitalia expresses sexuality?
Or does this question attempt to force me
To express who I am
merely by my perception of my sexuality?
How dare this form require me?
to deduce who I am
more thoroughly
than I know myself?

Now to fully categorize the
essence of my being
it demands me to choose one
of three last choices;
one of three to give my allegiance to:
Am I black?
Am I white? or
Am I other?

Am I as black?
black like the wonderful
ebony of my mother?
How wonderfully embracing
her love?
her discipline?
her acceptance?
Am as black as the grace with which she
filled my life with
love and appreciation?

Am I white?
Am I as white,
White like the handsome
Ivory of my father?
How strong he embraced me
Or how his arm around my shoulder
led me to the pier on the lake
Where we cast our lines together.
Where I pulled fish from the water
And Wisdom from the stories of life
As it was lived by my dad?

Or was I "the other"?
What was this unidentified, undefined;
this unknown place of being?

By being "other"
did I live without claiming
my own birthrate?
Was "other" admitting that
I neither could claim allegiance
to the ancestral inheritance
of my mother’s people?

Or does the path of the "other"
lead me to that place of being
that remains disowned by
the proud white fathers
of my Dad's parental history?

It is just a registration form!
It only helps the school
categorize it student population.
"Don't take it personal."
But it seeks to force me
to define myself;
a self that is even now still being shaped.

It is just a simple registration form
Yet it asks me the question
I cannot answer myself
How can I answer?
I am my Mother's child;
the love of her life.
I am all that she dreamed.
Yet, I am my Father's son.
His purpose to be;
The inspiration of
his deepest reason to exist.

I cannot define myself;
not in the terms of this limited
Registration Form.

I leave the form incomplete.
The secretary is angry.
But I cannot answer her.
I have a name; it was given me by those
whose love combined to give me life?
I have an address
It is that place where love creates a home from the
structure of a house.
My address is the place where love and strength nurtured me
and allowed me to grow.

But I am all that was given me.
I am the wealth of both
My Ebony Mother
and My Ivory Father.

So am I the "Other"?

Only if "Other"
is a way to say that
we are finally at an age
where we no longer
define life in terms of
Black or White.
END

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NenaT commented on Black, White or Other

03-01-2010

I grew up with this dilemma. Are you Hispanic? or Native American? I'm both. Why can't I be both? So I would check one or the other, feeling cheated in the process. Just a registration form..... Great write!

JEAGLEFEATHER

06/19/2010

I am apologizing for not replying sooner. I am without excuse. I actually am caucasian; however I was married to three wonderful black ladies over the course of my 55 years. The first bore my three miraculous children and then went home to the Lord in 1995.. The poem addresses an event in which I was posed this question while attempting to enroll them in school.

stellar commented on Black, White or Other

10-22-2009

This is so touching....the sentiment is so true...This is one of the ills in society...

ScorpianPrinces commented on Black, White or Other

06-26-2009

We humans are conditioned either by family or society to look at the outside of a person, with a lot of it being their color, beauty, ugliness, or a disablity, etc w/o knowing anything about the person. We're all guilty of this at some time in our lives, but as we mature and experience our own short comings and make our own choices, hopefully we have learned that in life we are all one & all the other things aren't the issues of yesterday or today anymore. Every color is a definition of the beauty God made of us all to accept one another in this world to each make a difference together. Those who can not see, realize or be part of this beauty have missed the whole point of living. I don't hate anyone but hate all the prejudice that eats away in a world God meant to be otherwise. I want to say one more thing in closing as I've been many things in this world I'm ashamed of, but I tell others "never judge anyone as they may turn around and step into the same shoes that they never dreamed they would have.Very deep poem. Right on. Peace out. - Scorpianprinces

JaLaw commented on Black, White or Other

06-26-2009

This is an excellent write. Nice, profound delineation; you should definitely consider writing a poetry book. Great job!

samuelj commented on Black, White or Other

02-04-2009

QUESTION FOR THE MIND OF THOSE WHO KNOWS NOT HUMANITY AS BEING HUMAN,,,,,HE WHO LIVETH KNOWETH

Poetry is what is lost in translation.

Robert Frost (1875-1963) American Poet.

JEAGLEFEATHER’s Poems (25)

Title Comments
Title Comments
Darkly Shines MY Sun 2
The Death Of Reason 22
It's Down To This 18
Another Drunkard's Attempt At Thinking 11
Solitary 4
Black, White or Other 7
Are You In The Mirror? 5
Life As It Is 4
Pieces Of Diety 34
Dream Me Dark 6
Happiness Ellusive 2
Among Smoke And Ash 4
In Quiet Do I Awake 2
In Silence Do I Answer 6
Down By The Darkside 2
The Summer Of Cassandra 3
Native Land 9
Your Best Friend 3
Rimbaud In A Dream 1
Rivers Of Memory OR Lost In Time 3
I Once Happy 3
I Awoke Dead 6
Comin Of The Rain 6
Four AM And A Cup Of Coffee 6
Life Is Just Waiting To Die 13