Love Poem: The Dark Girl's Black Magic
Sruti Upadrasta Avatar
Written by: Sruti Upadrasta

The Dark Girl's Black Magic

Some days I wake up 
Brush my teeth with anxiety 
And braid my hair with pain
There are days I chafe at my dark skin
As insults burn holes in my heart as I walk in
The school corridors 
A sense of alienation hammering into me
I carry anguish on my shoulders 
I feel like my soul is being crushed by boulders 
Boulders of my thoughts and your words
Standing in front of the mirror I scratch my skin
As the sin of me being dark-skinned weighs me down 
You pointed at me and laughed 
As I stood there staring at the ground 
Waiting for the earth to split open and swallow me whole
Aunty tells me that I am pretty for a dark-skinned girl
That I have nice hair and that almost compensates for the color of my skin
No, I don’t want your almost compliments 
I suddenly forget how to breathe as it slowly dawns on me 
That dark is an atrocity 
I am almost convinced that the universe
Is making me pay for all my sins
My world gyrated the day I told myself 
I can never be enough, not in this skin
One day I thought I finally found 
 A solution to my problem
White semi-liquid substance encapsulated in a bottle
My hopes and dreams died 
As I frantically slapped it on my face 
And rubbed it in until my skin was sore 
I screamed 
I screamed in rage
As I looked at the bottled in duplicity
You see melanin is only pretty 
When it comes in tiny amounts
That day the oceans collided
 and my cries were futile
But thank god it didn’t work 
My skin is not a painting open to your criticisms 
I am not a doll sitting by the window waiting
 to be admired by strangers
you see I was taught that dark skin didn’t deserve to be loved 
that I could never love myself
I blame the unrealistic beauty standards set  
For young girls and boys
The perfect hourglass figure
The toned muscles
The plump lips
The doe-eyes
And the fair skin
And of course, just the right amount of curves
Stop this
We are going to claim our identities back
We are going to truly find peace in ourselves
So to all those who scratch their skin
And try to bleach it
 I say don’t
Jettison those godforsaken creams
Do not pay heed to what anyone says 
Stand up for yourself and don’t you drown in dismay
For dark is magic
Dark is beautiful
Dark is elegant
Dark is powerful
Dark is the pupil which sees the world
Stars etched into the crevasses of your mind
And embedded in your arteries 
You are made of stardust
My love, you were born from a magnificent supernova
Your skin is as wonderful as the limitless dark depth of the universe
Gold spills from your mouth
There is so much more to you than just your skin
And don’t you cry, o’ moonchild
You have magic running through your veins
Feeling beautiful is loving your thoughts
your mind and your soul
listen not to those
who tell you that you aren’t enough
for you are a child of the dark cosmos
you are more than enough