The Real Chocolate

White chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate

How chocolate is chocolate

Is your chocolate more chocolate than my chocolate

The milk dipped into my chocolate

Does that make my chocolate unreal

And less chocolate than your chocolate

Who put milk in the chocolate and changed the look

Why you wanna say I’m not real chocolate

What is real chocolate

Why you wanna question my chocolate

My chocolate speaks different from your chocolate

My chocolate sings better than your chocolate

My chocolate doesn’t dress like your chocolate

Is white chocolate chocolate

Is dark chocolate more chocolate

Is milk chocolate less chocolate

Is chocolate just chocolate with its many shades

What is real chocolate

Why do you question my chocolate when it’s white

Why do you question my chocolate when it’s dark

Why do you question my chocolate when it’s milk

Why do you question my chocolate at all

What is real chocolate

My chocolate has rhythm

My chocolate has soul

My chocolate has power

Am I privileged if I’m white chocolate

Am I looked down on if I’m dark chocolate

Am I an outcast if I’m milk chocolate

 

You question how my chocolate is wrapped

You question how my chocolate conducts itself

You question my chocolate’s attitude

What makes chocolate real chocolate

Why do you question chocolate at all

What is real chocolate

My white chocolate is pretty

My dark chocolate is beautiful

My milk chocolate is cute

How long will we continue to play this game

When will all chocolate be the same

How long will we question what is real

Why make difference a big deal

When will my chocolate be enough to be chocolate

What is real chocolate

Complicated questions with no definitive answers?

Chocolate is chocolate

White chocolate

Dark chocolate

Milk chocolate

—it’s all real chocolate

 

Inspired by the documentary “Am I Black Enough”

As a child I was teased because I had yellow pigments in my skin, I grew up somewhat confused about skin color; because the child with dark or black pigments was also teased. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see yellow or black, I saw brown. On the playground there was a mixture of colors in our skin so why were we all called black; especially since the blackest child was sometimes the last one picked for a team. At other times, the high yellow kid was left out. I often wondered what skin tone was acceptable. Oddly, the acceptable tone changed with the era. How did we as a people, especially kids, learn to differentiate acceptance based on skin color? 

Why did it matter…

The Lifeline

In the solemn times of life, you sometimes find yourself hiding in the crevice of a rock

Wondering—where is my lifeline…

A treacherous wind is blowing desolation in volumes through your turbulent emotions

The trenches of your life keep pulling you down deeper into a despairing darkness

Gloom is swirling all around attacking the happiness you desire

You need the light of your spirit to shine bright in the blackness of that all-consuming despair

But that gloom is fiercely fighting against what you know is true to your victory

You want to uncover the peace of an unfailing love that covers you everywhere

You need the shield that encompasses your faith and the breastplate that protects your righteousness to surround you and stand tall against the forces that savagely tries to devour your lifeline

The lifeline that releases the chokehold that holds you down

The lifeline that spreads a joy-filled presence all around

The lifeline that lifts you up and make your spirit soar

The lifeline that helps you remember you forgot to listen for the knock at the door

The knock that says—Here I am! If you open the door, I will come in

The knock that says seek and you will find

Ask and it will be given—pressed down, shaken together and running over

A knock that brings a conquering lifeline

Calming the treacherous winds

Dispelling the gloom of despair

Pulling you out of the trenches and lighting a candle in the darkness

A lifeline that uncovers the unfailing peace of love

Displaying your happiness—anytime anywhere

A lifeline of victory that started on a cross stating—I Am that I Am

I Am in control

I bring you through gloomy clouds on the left

And sunny clouds on the right—with blue skies in between

I Am the Lifeline that controls all the highs and the lows

I comfort you when turbulence comes

And rejoice with you when it goes

Elevating you to your rightful place

Nothing happens that I haven’t ordained

I Am that I Am

I AM—The Lifeline