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[Sharon Mack]

HIS COLORS
By Sharon L. Mack

I married a man
A man of color
A black man
And he taught me many things.

He taught me that 
It was a shame
If a man his
Size and age
Couldn't make two little girls
Obey
Without having to hit them.

And when he looked at me
I knew he meant the lesson
For me, too,
Though I would not learn
The lesson 
For many years to come.

He taught me that love goes
Beyond a name
And that he could love
My daughters
Without being called, 'Daddy'
And he taught them
Respect for the one
Who carried that name.

He asked them to call him
'Mr. Phil' 
And told them that love
Was the same 
And friendship was a most valuable gift.

He taught me to 
Walk on my own
To do my own thing
And though we were one
We were also two.

He taught me 
Not to see color
But to know
Who we are, nonetheless,
To know one another
Beyond what society saw
And how others might name us.

He taught me that
Sly, cool, innuendo
And niggardly word puns
Were not funny
But simply white of me.

He taught me that it was okay
To be curious about our outward
Differences,
As he honored a small child's
Innocent curiosity
When she looked in his face
And into his eyes
And asked him
If she could touch his hair.

He taught me that
Music was hard work
If you wanted to hear it
And that harmonicas were
A real instrument.

He taught me to listen
While he sang his night songs
With dust in his voice,
For the songs were short
And soon they would be gone
With the end of our time
With the end of our love.

I married a man
A man of color
A black man
And he taught me many things.