BLACK SKIN (FOR KAMAU B)

Peter Jailall

My santan tone teecha
Read me the story—
“Scrubbing The Negro”
And whenever I see
A tub of boiling water
I cringe and I cry.
 

Since ABC days, you see
I hated meI
I always wanted to be clear—
Clear! Clear!
White! White!
Whiter than arti milk.

Not black lacka tar
Or black like bigan
Black like the ace of spades
Or black like black foul shit
Low nation chamar

I cried, but I tried
Used white Pond’s Cold Cream
Mennen’s Talcum Baby Powder
Stayed in the shade
To wait and wanda
And when nobody is looking
I peep under my arm
Just to see the progress
Of my gradual change to whiteness

When all my efforts failed
I moved to cold white Canada
But when I returned home for a visit
They say:
“Su yu cum back!
Luk at yu
Yu mean fu tell we
Yu live sulang outside
An yuna even ketch lilculla?”

 

Peter Jailall is a teacher, poet, storyteller, and author. He received the 2010 Guyana Cultural Association Award for his work in rural education and, in 2011, The MARTYS Award for Established Literary Artist.  This poem was originally published in Sacrifice: Poems on the Indian Arrival in Guyana (2010).