by Mindy Marque Pham
with hope and empathy
with silence and screaming
i really don’t know
how to make blue appear
to tell you that the sky falls
and people die
In unmarked graves
how to make you see blue
when you have blue eyes
how do words come out
in which phrasing, form
to make you feel
What i feel
To touch the rough scabs of
Paint strokes from knives
from the brown and yellows
etched on my skin
By people who share
The same shade of blue
As your eyes
How do I make you see blue
When you have blue eyes
—-
so i wake up twice
three times a night
red tossing me, spikes
ebbing on my spine
how do i make the red
disappear, fade, past
red is not a color
no not mines
to use as a weapon
so i bleed in fatigue
my tongue flows red
instead because i let red go
from my fists to my heart
red cannot make blue eyes see
useless words to useless ears
waves lashing at a rock
Eroding someday maybe
To reveal all the good
The good I know is there
Just as you think you know
Racism, explaining it to me
Despite the brown in me
—-
To your blue eyes
That cannot see the blue
That falls from the skies
And lands on black yellow brown
To your blue eyes
To my red tongue
To the purple we make
In the bruises I take
With hope and empathy
With silence and screaming
Because we need blue to see
If all colors are to be free
And if I must take purple
Because I refuse to fight
Perhaps the red in your chest
Will feel the blue in my bruises
And then might your blue eyes see
The blue that is falling
The death around me
With hope and empathy
With silence and screaming
How do we make blue eyes
See blue