"You're not black."

I don't care,
I'm well aware of that.
The big guy in the sky
couldn't have made me
any whiter if
I was a polar bear
stranded on an
ever diminishing
ice pack.
Irish blood got me
paler than that
pale a water
Jack and Jill
were sposed
to bring back.

But I speak
the way I speak,
not to distance
myself from identity
I just don't see
it as a matter
purely for ethnicity
cause I was lucky to be
bought up in a city
where I didn't see
  those boundaries.

Apartheid tendencies
just hide
the truth you see.
That in many ways
I'm just like you
and you're just like me
and we kiss
and make up
*humanity
though
bourgeoisie mentality
would have
divide and conquer.

But I come from
the melting ***,
*culture clash
is London's calling
and its the
richest melody
if only you'd
listen properly.

Where I can walk around
the corner to my neighbours
and converse in Punjabi
with those I consider
my extended family.
Where Mrs Henry
who lived in flat A
insisted I never
called her by her first name,
hand me and my brother
an ice pole and
send us on our way,
the Caribbean way.

No need for tolerance
when you learnt respect
for difference at an early age.
And not just respect
Appreciation
Celebration of all
these cultures
that influence me,
give me insight
so I can see
in kaleidoscope colours.

Sisters and brothers
that don't share
the same skin tone
but all call the
same place home.
And I hope
social solidarity
will one day
be found.
Like when we
were kids
in my school
playground
Because when
you look around
and I mean
really look around
you see we all
stand upon
common ground

And I don't believe
that the view
from my window
is idealistic.
And to say
"it's not that simplistic"
Is enough to justify
it being unrealistic.
Tear down Cynical City
In love I say
and in the ruins
build the foundation
Of SimpliCity Today

So I'll keep
putting the word "man"
inexplicably
at the
end of sentences
like I've done
since year 3,
embrace that
slang terminology
cause it's what I do man,
it's who I am man,
I'm *hu-man.