they paint their nails dark shades of midnight
and wear clothes the color of ink
crying drops of ebony eyeliner
and listening to music angry as black
to the beat of clinking chains on their raven jeans

i think they are trying to mark up the world
with their sharpies
silently screaming "i am here"

i would rather be clothed in shadow
painting my nails in shades of heather
leaving my face bare and ashen
and listening to chords simple as grey
to the slow beat of plain charcoal strings around my wrists

i just doodle in the corner of my backyard
with light strokes of my pencil
wishing to disappear

everything is numb again
i'm back in that familiar grey
the grey that weighs down my shoulders
it lays on my chest and
traps my breath in my lungs.

have you guys
ever been to
großburgwedel?

it's in germany

i am there right now
to have my right leg
examined

sure: it's raining
the sky is grey
and all that
well well

but one thing i am
certain of:
i wouldn't come here again
except i want to gain
certainty

i have nothing against
the people
from großburgwedel

i simply don't want to
live in grey lands:

grey faces
grey voices
and many right-winged persons

I LOVE COLORS
I LOVE THE GERMAN AND THE ETHIOPIAN FLAG
I LOVE MY BI-RACIAL FAMILY