My first best friend was second grade.
No doubt forever had I stayed
Longer than the mobile home that housed me.
Coal black hair and three pigtails,
She made me smile where others failed,
Her pink palms playing in the mud beside me.
My mother was quite taken back,
As I was white and she was black
And tempers rose around oppressive trend.
Kids can be mean and some are cruel
Not many knew the golden rule
Except my dark skinned beautiful friend.
So much I didn't understand.
My color blindness was not bland.
It treated me to a rainbow of excursion.
For I was only trailer trash,
Oilfield rabble, not much cash,
A prime candidate for introversion.
She never noticed I was white.
She never blinked one brown eye.
While we shared our lunch and girly dreams.
So glad I am I was awake
And open to a skinless state
While others missed so much of her it seems.
Author notes
Summer sun sinking
by Kira
Is he for real?
by Kira
This is a poem about my first best friend in a small Texas town during the mid sixties.
Not sure how many colors I have shown you, but these are a few that really made a difference in my life 
Written August 14th, 2005
In a list
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What did you think
Comments
1 - 29 of 29
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Very good write. It has good postive message. We're all special and unique. We're all same having same blood colored red but the skin is different. Racisim got to end if we want peace and joy in this world.
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Ohhhhhh... ♥! i love this. i really do like your poetry.
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this is fantastic i have a couple of black friends and we dont mind if people look at us cause where happy to be friends... i really like this i'm sure she would too...
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I like this!!!!!!i hope you read my work and i hope you enjoy it.
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very soulful
You see the soul, and there is no color. thats how it should be everywhere forever. and thanks for your words on my peice. -
very soulful
You see the soul, and there is no color. thats how it should be everywhere forever. and thanks for your words on my peice. -
I enjoyed reading this awesomly descriptive poem. I wanted to see how well of a poet you all were when you first started with allpoetry. You all (my students) have not let me down. You are all so amazing. I enjoy how each one of you are all so different and unique in your styles. I see that you are very unique and can describe just about anything.. Keep it up and I hope to read more in my class. Kahy
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Lol, Ellis, that was great. Thanks for stopping by and making me smile
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Wonderful Heartfelt Poem
Reading this poem is a PURE JOY.
My poem on race:
TAN
I am not concerned about being white.
My ancestors never got enough sun.
They were too far north and try as they might
To get a nice tan, they couldn’t get one.
Skin color is caused by the place on the globe
Where one’s ancestors were in those early days
When travel by horse and camel rather slowed
Them down so they mainly stayed in one place.
At the equator the sun beats down year round.
Generations of folks got a nice tan.
Those toward the north and south poles sadly found
They grew pale for generations to a man.
Those near the equator kept getting much darker.
The children of those near the poles got paler.
The ones in the sun got black which became their marker.
The ones in the shade got made white as their nailer.
Identified by color, now folks go to far away places
In ships and planes and trains and automobiles
Through our early generations the sun made the races
Who now live in whatever places to them appeals.
My ancestors being from the north makes me white.
As much as I want a tan, not everyone can.
The difference skin color makes for those who are light
Is how much longer it takes a white person to get a tan.
--Ellis
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Sadly, no except for the wonderful memories. It was a very small but enormously impacting time in my life. One of those examples of how we learn so much from people other than the adults in our lives as children. Social acceptabilities of the moment are not always accurate and they quite often cheat us out of great gifts of love and joy. She is a memory I will treasure always.
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That's a lovely poem thistle. Do you still keep in touch with your friend? Good luck in the contest
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You confused me a bit with your question. You can elaborate if you like. In this case the good guys were not in white. I remember most of the caucasian children being quite snooty. They were really kind of sad times. I am just glad I have a bright spot in it all and I hope my friend does too.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. This is a special piece for me and I appreciate the feedback.
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thought-provoking
Lots of emotion, well-written, excellent use of colour. I loved, 'I was white, she was black' using traditional colour-based stereotypes. The good guy is always in white. Maybe that affected the way readers viewed your mother in the poem? -
Thistle, what a wonderful, loverly poem about real friendship that transends accepted boundries. On this site we read everything from absolutely horrible to brillant. Then there are some that make you want to just reach out and hug someone with you readingit/ This is one those wonderful make you feel good pieces. Funny, thing though substitute place me in there and would have been a true story as well. image and sending you a bid hug!
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sweet profound piece if only other could live under the same non color eyes i adore the reference to it as a " skinless state" brilliant anthology of a word described in many other forms lol abigailxx
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excellent, so very well written
Very powerful, well done, I felt like I was there. -
What a wonderful, uplifting poem!! I went to school for a short time in Texas, my dad's home state. I'm 68 years old now and that was when I was in 2nd grade so you can imagine the color boundaries at the time, more than 60 years ago, but one day I happened to run into my little black friend in a store. The drinking fountains were marked 'white' and 'colored'.....daring as we were for 2nd graders, we dared to trade drinking fountains and await the fall of the sky.....lol.... but darn it, nothing happened, if we were noticed at all, no one said anything.
Your poem is very nice, a well written piece of a memorable friendship
Welcome to allpoetry and good luck in the contest
Dee
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This was a well-written and enjoyable read. The format and rhyme was very good and made the poem a joy to read.
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wow... you have my appluase... not only for a wonderfully written poem but for have the "sight" you had back then... In a very trying time... I wish you much luck with this entry for this contest... a wonderful memory indeed in many ways... Bravo !
Amy
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This was very well penned indeed. Your rhyme scheme was a nice touch to this. It’s a shame that something so wonderful is often tainted by such ignorance in this world. I think you did a marvelous job with this.
~ John
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I really liked your poem! Very Eye opening and well written.
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Sweet innocence of children is a wonderful thing until adults take it away with their views and opinions
This is a wonderful write about a memory that appears very dear to you
Welcome to AP
Mia
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For I was only trailer trash,
Oilfield rabble, not much cash,
A prime candidate for introversion. A brash, but hard to post statement , I'm sure.
This is a good poem, with the memory of it in the frong seat which matters so much. A little polish would do this one proud.
Thank you for sharing and welcome to AllPoetry!
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Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Too bad we all can't go back to those innocent days when friendship is colorblind. Unfortunately, life experiences cause so many of us to become racist and stereotypical, unable to see the purity of simple friendship.
Thank you for entering the contest, and I wish you the best of luck! -
Wonderful!
Your poem is very good and touching to me because my best friend is white and I'm mixed so we know how that is since we've been friends from about 5. -
Excellent!
Very very true! Excellent poem on the attitudes of people!
Edited on Aug 14, 3:19 p.m. because 'spelling'. -
I agree with all the above. This poem is profound and eye opening. Awesome penning. Thank you for following the rules of the contest Also I thank you for the entry and welcome to AP FifthDove
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Wow this is awesome. Yes, friendship and love should know no colour. Good luck in the contest and welcome to AP!
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Oh wow...this is absolutely wonderful. I love your story and the message it leaves us with. Very well said and written. Thank you so much for sharing this with us all Best of luck to you in the contest. Welcome to AP
~Kristy
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