I can’t do it

Celebrating mediocrity

Holding onto this vain belief

I am expected to celebrate freedom

I am expected to ignore to cost

I dare not say how many lives it has cost

If I start to imagine this differently

It feels like, really deep in me

We are still paying a cost

Because I must celebrate

Each and every time

Someone with skin color like mine

Is ALLOWED to do something for the first time

I can’t do it

I see the Queens accomplishments

But historically we know

It doesn’t mean the door is really open

It doesn’t mean they let her all the way in

It means they opened it just enough

Just enough for her to squeak in

As soon as she was in

That door was shut

Lights turned onto the highest lumens

To pick apart every single fault

As she checked and double checked

Preventing any failure to be unchecked

I can’t do it

I know I am expected to

Be proud of that common phrase

From over a century ago

The first person to do X with this skin tone

The thing that is hard for me

That skin tone never stopped anyone’s ability

In reality they could always do what they did

The only thing lacking was opportunity

This weight that is really upon me

Is indirectly we are celebrating one simple fact

Celebrating a decision that someone somewhere

Decided to give this skin tone a chance

I can’t do it

I want to celebrate progress

I want to see life for what it is meant to be

The most honorable gentleman said

We should be judged by the content of our character

He was eluding to the sheer possibility

That the skin we wear doesn’t define anything

You could have a dark hue and win

You could have a light hue and always sun

The celebratory part is when no ones hue matters

And it doesn’t stop there

It’s when our thoughts are the only equity

How do we celebrate that victory?