Aspiring for something greater, she never could escape the world of red and blue
handkerchiefs,
hustling baggies of wedding dress white powder,
and kissing chocolate skinned men for greenbacks.
She never could escape those sooty black walls
or that slate grey city.
Gummy, black tar sticking to her feet…
life has her running from the boys in blue.
She never could escape a mother who only found happiness in heroin,
golden as it coagulates in the spoon,
or a father whose sadism manifests in the form of a shiny,
purple
then yellow-green bruise.
She never could escape the life of an ebony skinned girl in the street,
or afford to swaddle her own daughter in the easy life of baby doll pink.