PUNK POETRY: you would be four years old when you saw your brown skin by Izzy Torres

you would be four years old when you saw your brown skin

the other kids would
say how ugly it was

to have skin as brown
as the galveston waters

when most other
white kids

would not realize
their whiteness

until the age of 18
until they were adults

you would sit in 
front of a mirror

at four years old
and stare at your skin

you would run
soap and water

over your arms
thinking dirt

washes away 
quickly

you would play
the role of evil

because criminal
characters looked

like you 
on tv

your class was 
only a pile of snow

you would grow
to learn dirt was inevitable

that underneath the
green grass

of suburban homes
were piles of soil

the first time you
got pulled over

you would pray to
god you didn’t

get asked to 
leave your car

and as an adult
you would always

wonder why you
were never good enough

why you were always
the soil

and they were always
the grass

--Izzy Torres