Please Don’t Tell Me (from the poetry book "In and Out of Season"

Please don’t tell me

You don’t see color

Don’t worry

I ain’t mad at you

I’m just confused

Why don’t you?

Would you look at a sunset and say

“Oh I don’t see its radiance”

Or feel the breeze of a Colorado summer morning and say

“Oh I don’t feel that cool breeze on my face”?

Now I’m not delusional

I know I’m not a sunset or a morning breeze

But I am a man

A black man

And I see you, brother

So please don’t tell me

You don’t see me

Ignoring our diversity

Is not bringing us closer together

It’s creating an invisible wall of silence

Acceptance because I assimilated is not acceptance

And pretending that I “fit in” when I don’t creates suspicion and ignorance

Fear and tension

The Enemy uses these weapons to create the borderlines between us

So talk to me

I want to talk to you

Listen to me

I want to listen to you

We don’t have to agree on everything

Believe it or not

I don’t agree with every black person I know either

But the love is there

And isn’t love greater than colorblindness?

So please, don’t tell me

You don’t see my color

When God intentionally made it obvious

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love is an offering

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