Sunshine
Alive - you feel the energy in the air. The water is quenching and it fills the hearts of the people and animals on the horizon. You look to see beautiful faces of all different shades embracing their blackness. You feel the music and it makes your heart pound. You're face to face with something called love.
The love you feel when you do something good or the love you feel when you make someone smile. But unfortunately, not everyone sees this type of love. On TV and in magazines, we are seen like animals and they lock us away, but in reality we are exactly the sun trying to shed light on those who lost their sunshine.
But I know who I am. I am Mecca. A black girl who is something and who will be something amazing, and no white man will tell me otherwise.
We all need to stand up and show them that we are the stars shining in the nighttime and that they are the darkness that keeps our sun from showing. And we didn't go through all these years of pain to stop now. No! We will fight until we can fully embrace our light and we will fight so that we will never ever go through that darkness again.
Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. So be yourself. Be truly Black. And show our brothers and sisters that black isn't a curse, it's a gift that is magically yours.
I love the joy of this piece, and the natural imagery that you weave throughout--especially the way you link sunshine to the light people carry inside them. My favorite line is "we are the sun trying to shed light on those who lost their sunshine" because it emphasizes the strength of community and the power of helping others.
ReplyDeleteVery powerful piece. You state your case clearly and fully. I believe that you will be and do amazing things. The line the "no white man will tell me otherwise" bothers me. No one white or black, male or female should tell you otherwise. Be yourself, be amazing and show the world how wonderful you are. I am cheering for you.
ReplyDeleteStand tall and shine on in these dark times. You created room for hope where there is darkness. You already are amazing. Keep your light going!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this piece, Mecca. As a teacher, I've done a lot of work with place-based education, work that seeks to use the places around us as inspiration for writing. The natural imagery in your piece reminds me of a problem with place-based education that I've been grappling with for some time: places that include water, animals, horizons are often exclusionary (put another way, society treats those places as if they are for White people). I love the way you infuse natural imagery with Blackness in this piece, pushing back against those exclusionary ideas.
ReplyDeleteMecca,
ReplyDeleteThis is a piece that expresses hope of bright days ahead. It appears as if you are bracing yourself for a struggle to achieve that end. Indeed, you will likely encounter struggle, but I hope you will find the world can be a friendly and encouraging place as well. Granted, not always, but people can surprise us at times.
Hi Mecca;
ReplyDeleteI appreciate reading your piece, I believe that when you believe in yourself that you are better equipped to deal with the challenges that life has to offer. I also like the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thank You for spreading that Sunshine in your piece.
Beautiful writing, Mecca!
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely a “Shining Star” and continue to “Be Yourself!”