There were many shades of colour
Yet the best were in your eyes
Far better than the ocean,
Far brighter than the skies.
I know it sounds insane
Because they weren’t exactly green
But they strolled the streets of Spain
And saw more than they had ever seen.

The Brown eyed girl
She smiles as he looks at her
She is just an ordinary Brown eyed girl
Oh how she wishes she didn't have brown eyes
The Brown eyed girl wanders with her pen in her hand
Hoping to write something extraordinary
The Brown eyed girl
Wishes for someone to love her with her brown eyes
The Brown eyed girl glances as the boy with extraordinary eyes
The Brown eyed girl is a writer
Underneath those brown eyes
Is a girl that has a bright heart
The Brown eyed girl

Walking home from my friend’s house after making music and making faces and his roommate’s ex-girlfriend was in the kitchen, her back to mine across the living room and I closed the door.
I walked the eight blocks to my house.
To the left
To the right
I thought of you but only a little bit.
I laughed when I slid on the ice on Summer Street and I inhaled deep to relish in the lack of sun, and for the first time, I listened that night in November
with her cold and slender hands over both of my ears.

I am black with a beautiful heart.
I am brown with a beautiful heart.
I am white with a beautiful heart.
I am a man with a beautiful heart.
I am a woman with a beautiful heart.
I am old with a beautiful heart.
I am disabled with a beautiful heart.
I am Judaist with a beautiful heart.
I am Christian with a beautiful heart.
I am Muslim with a beautiful heart.
I am Hindu with a beautiful heart.
I am Buddhist with a beautiful heart.
I am foreign with a beautiful heart.
I am a human with a beautiful heart!

Hussein Dekmak

Black boy stripped of his innocence.
Black boy denied his right to be a kid.
Black boy labeled since birth.
Black boy criminalized.
Black boy stereotyped.
Black boy violated.
Black boy silenced.
Black boy monitored.
Black boy put into a box.
Black boy seen as a menace.
Black boy forced to grow too fast.
Black boy with his back to the world.
Black boy, you are loved
Black boy, you are a prince
Black boy, you are beautiful
Black boy, you are smart and worthy.
Black boy, go on and speak your truth.
Black boy, go on and dance.
Black boy, go on and sing.
Black boy, go on and paint.
Black boy, go on and be a kid.

No, I do not hate Hermione Granger.
The love of my love just brings a sharp ache.
I wept for the loss in my teen-aged brain.
How I wish I'd lived to grow past this pain.

Alas I'm gone, in a sweep of the claws.
My legacy no more than a forgotten flame.
I had so much to offer, so much to give
but I suppose not all tales end in a grin.