Skin

even in this country
we say Dasa darkone go to hell straight to
can't agree on varna's meaning
color aura caste we dream
lightskin light up my lucky sky
fairskin fortune Bentley my Rolls

look the apple-cheeked Kashmiri
passes in a white club or look
the broad-nosed Dasa
once a metropole's guard tee-time early
to get him off the course first
yet you're darker than he Krishna
even a God can't explain what skin is

sometimes I think Britishers hated
their own pallor feared us I lived
in my body macadam macabre
music of my drum your blueness
I devoted myself to love
to them is fear and lore my god
not all of us stooped tealeaves
peppercorn cinnamon cane