A faded black and white photograph

Captures the gleaming grins of a family

Soft light ricochets off their shiny cheeks and teeth

A dark stain sits in the snapshot’s left margin

It’s a smudge that represents a secret

That they’d give their lives to keep

But that stain is not a result

Of a small child’s careless handling

That small murky blot is the face of a young girl

One whose very existence was cursed by her father

Due to the method in which she entered

His deceivingly functional world

Condemned from conception

She was the product of a deception

Of a woman looking for love

Outside a marriage void of affection

A woman who endured sleepless nights

While her husband lay drunk in the street

And who reared three children in poverty

Relying on government aid to eat

Many nights she dreamed of a different existence

Many days she prayed for better

Many times he promised to change his ways

But his fickle mind changed with the weather

Resigned to a life of struggle

She decided to give her very best

By loving hard and working hard

And depending on her faith for the rest

But one day life brought an unexpected surprise

In Mr. Brooks who moved down the road

A handsome, quiet man who kept to himself

No emotion did he ever seem to show

From the moment they’d met, it seemed like kismet

Her heart he won quickly with his charm

And thoughts of her marriage flew out of her mind

With each moment that she spent in his arms

Soon and without warning all signs begin to point

To a new life growing inside

Distraught and afraid of her husband’s wrath

She made every last effort to hide

But she soon was exposed; he reeled in shock

As he watched his wife’s figure transform

And the anger he felt was unlike anything else

But he forgave and accepted her unborn

Mr. Brooks with his darling deep dimples

As well as his black as midnight skin

Vanished without saying nary a word

And she accepted that their love was at end

Time passed quickly and the baby was born

A chubby, curly haired girl

With deep cocoa skin and darling deep dimples

The gem of her mother’s world

But things changed quickly and the wife soon discovered

That things were quite different than they’d started

And her little dark girl with the big black curls

Was being degraded and disregarded

And as that girl grew she felt it too

Though her mother tried to soften the blows

Be she too was subjected to the vengeful abuse

Of a man whose anger burned slow

So with each holiday and each family photo

That little brown girl tried to hide

Shying away from her brothers and sisters

And their father who snapped their pictures with pride

She relegated herself to a smudge on a photo

And a blot on all she hoped to be

And she struggled through a childhood of ridicule

Praying desperately for reprieve

And one day she searched inside herself

And discovered that she was more than her birth

And that there was a reason no matter the method

That she was permitted to step foot on this earth

And she still loved her father and siblings and especially

A mother who’d worked hard to make her see

That a small dark smudge on her heart she was not

And a mistake she could never be

And as I stare at this old photograph

A smile crosses my darling dimpled cheeks

‘Cause that small dark smudge of a lonely little girl

Is now a strong, happy woman

She is me!