Caramel skin with an undertone of olive

Glowing in the fluorescent light

I stare at myself in the mirror

Inspecting my penetrating eyes and button nose

Soon my vision blurs

I see someone else

A face

Darker than my own

Like asphalt on the playground

Or the skin of my grandmother

Scars carve deep valleys within her flesh

Black canyons shaped by the constant roaring of tears

A reminder of the past

The chains of bondage weigh upon my ankles

Dragging me down to the ship

The stench of putrid human waste

I am suffocated by the pain of my ancestors

My soul yearns for an escape

From the despair

To discover there is none

The glass breaks and I come crashing back

Into reality

I breathe in the solace

Recognizing my existence

In the present.