My Skin Poem by Rose King

My skin waded in water,
and stole away at night.
My skin shackled, bound__
Chattel sold by the dozen or by the pound.

My skin bleeds seeds from cotton plants__
picked with bent backs.
My skin hung from the magnolia tree
while they partied at my feet.

My skin raped, bore "mullatos,
"Octoroons" and "sambos"
My skin has many names "nigger"
"Jiggaboo" "spook" "preto" and "darky."

My skin was gentrified, segregated, and manipulated.
My skin was beaten, gassed, bitten, and drowned.
My skin was lost__
Sometimes never to be found.

My skin Ku Kluxed and Klaned
told it was less than a man.

My skin sat on the back of the bus,
went to the mountain top, saw the promise land.
My skin was slain by an assassins' hand.

My skin helped to build a nation,
with no apology, no reparations,
-no forty acres and a mule