The warm, chocolate gaze in your eyes,
promises safety, love and home.
Laughter lives in there, too, but also pain,
and mysteries of unknown size.
While quick with a smile or a laugh
and born to protect,
at times, when unguarded, your face reveals
heartaches, kept hidden away.
On rare occasions, a word will be spoken
and a glimpse into the pain is shared.
Callous, ignorant remarks made to a small
impressionable child.
Scars carried over time through the years.
Shaping. Molding. Into the man you became.
Even as an adult, racial slurs slung absently about
by so called educated men.
Always driven to do better, be better than everyone else,
because of one thing.
Always harder on yourself than anyone else.
Driven to excellence by prejudice.