I talk about skin color
With my grandchildren
It is all very innocent
And speculative.
Is their new baby brother or cousin
Going to be porcelain white
Or caramel brown?

We laugh. We imagine.
One of my granddaughters wants
her baby brother to be just like her.

She is the only brown one.
Like her father.
The rest of her cousins and her siblings
range from very fair to caramel brown.
She is the darkest child in our family.
Like her father.

I personally am jealous.
I am a product of the 60s and the 70s 🌸 In California.
A SOCAL girl reminiscing about the BEACHBOYS,

baby oil & iodine’ 🌻 A very Caucasian Anglo-Saxon
Wannabe copper tone,
brown skinned beauty.

This is all so ironic.
Isn’t it?

In these times when people
are pitted against each other
Over the color of a person’s skin?

Why did we NOT choose
Eye color to fight over?

My eye color is awesome!!
I have bright blue eyes.
I like them. They are worth noting.

But so are my brown eyed grandbaby’s eyes
They are a gorgeous brown
with flecks of yellow.
So beautiful!
Created by an imaginative God
With no end to HIS creativity.
Both of us are unique.

I am in awe, noting that . . .
We are Both SPECIAL.

At this point In my life
I have come to the understanding that,
LIFE is NOT a competition.
It is a GALLERY of beloved ART.

Some of my grand children have asked me
What my favorite color is?

I have always had the same answer.

I am absolutely in LOVE with
ALL of the colors of the rainbow
& with ALL of their variations.
Separate and yet together
In the manner that
a rainbow INSISTS on thriving.
This is MY idea of beauty.

YES. God. I love rainbows. 🌈
Doesn’t everybody?

Isn’t this the BEST picture of
A loving God & HIS creative SPIRIT?

DISTINCT. In UNISON. TOGETHER.

So. As we go back to our conversation
About skin color, & eye color
& distinction . . .

We were having that conversation weren’t we?

Can we make it more GLOBAL?

CAN we consider the possibility
That ALL of humanity
In all of their diverse cultures & countries
Are also a important part
of an imaginative GOD
Who loves US all the same
With the same fervor
As HIS delightful POEMA?

And what if we Did the same as our God?
What if we did
See life & humans in this way?

HOW ? Would this affect us? & our paradigms?

JUST ASKING. 🤔

AMERICA?

What happened to you? 

What happened to the days 

when life was about

playing ‘around the block game’

Where we ran free & unfettered,

frolicking with friends?

Where the mystery of who held the hidden paper

was the delight in this child’s invented game?

What happened to YOU?

Where it  was safe to assume that we were safe.  

We could hide in ANY neighbor’s  yard;

the only danger

perceived was that

which was devised 

in our own imaginations?

The pretend villain. 

The opposing hero. 

Daylight savings in the 60s. 

Suburbia.  safe and sound. 

REMEMBERING . . . 

I am  running the streets outside.
I am enjoying my friends

Daylight savings. 
Crickets chirping in the yard.
The kids are safe.
Let  them PLAY.

REMEMBERING :

Popsicles on top of the  station wagon  

Fireworks on  the  Fourth of July!

WE were exuberant children

Gulping Shasta soda

without restraint;

one special day to Celebrate

the beauty & freedom of you – AMERICA  

WE felt so free; after –

Playing ping-pong and shuffleboard. 

Even the dads were in the pool;

Tossing us up into the air  

playing ‘keep away’

where we as valiant children

were almost willing to drown to hang on to the rubber ball.

 

Each & EVERY single day 

in the Summer

We were swimming in the pool;  playing

‘cut away’ &‘corner tag’

as our moms drank iced tea 

& attempted to discern the fine line between what would lead to stitches

And what was just plain FUN?

Have you changed America? 

Were you lying to me back then?

When you told me that life was safe; &

That life was good?
Were you lying to me when you told me that

we were all friends?

Or . . . 

WAS I simply naïve,

&

did not know

that I lived in a part of America

That wasn’t REAL for everyone?