After enjoying a nice summer day at my neighbors’ pool at the age of eight,
I ran back home since the sun began its descention from the sky.
Happy go lucky, I reflected the day of playing mermaids with my friend, as I waited for the door to open.
The heat insulated between my body and the towel I wrapped around myself.
The door creaked open, and I could feel the inviting coolness from the air inside.
My mother looked down on me, and with an inquistive look asked,
“Whose little daughter are you?”
I giggled at the joke and reassured her I was hers.
She shook her head and exchanged, “No, no you are way too dark to be my daughter.”
After a minor banter with my mother, she eventually let me in,
Looking at me, passing her by, with disapproving eyes,
Scolding me for not heeding her deliberate warnings to not play in the sun for too long.
When I entered my bathroom to clean up for the night
An image in the mirror caught my eye.
Starring back at me was a girl with big, brown eyes,
A round face framed with frizzy, kinky, dark, curly, poofy hair,
With skin darker than most of the other little girls in our small town.
Looking down at my hands, my tanned arms and legs, I began to question…
©AyalaRain
To Make Your Day Sweet 