What If am a mixed woman?

Is it a crime?
Arrest me!
Is it insane?
Commit me!
Is it a sin?
Pray for me!
Does it bother you?
Tell me!

What if I am a mixed woman?
Are you blaming me because I'm
From savannah and winter forest
All in the same time?

How many times you think I heard
Right behind my back
“Light, bright, near white”
“Halfbreed black”?

Just because I am a mixed woman!
Don't put me into apartheid zone,
I am among all nations
But with a mind of my own.

What if I am a mixed woman?
Is it a disease?
Well, I hope it's catching
And you'll get it if it is.

Because it makes you strong, but gentle,
Searching, but glad,
Loving, but hateful,
And beautiful above that.

Because we are midnight black, chestnut brown,
Honey bronzed, milk white,
Cocoa dipped, big lipped, big hipped...
Alright?

Are my looks to blame?
Or my thoughts, which is worse?
I wonder if we are thinking the same,
 because...

I want smiles, not tears,
Happiness, not fears,
Pleasure, not pain,
Sunshine, not rain,
A man, not a chid!

I want a man who wants me,
Loves me, respects me white and black,
And gives me everything because
I give him everything back!

And I like to work because I like to eat,
I'm no slave of yours,
My mother is black and my mother is white
And I have rights same as hers!

And I have rights, same as you!
I love me and I want you to love me too!
And if you are beside me,
I am near to you, close to you, beside you.

Like I've been for the past 300 years.
Your
Mixed
Woman.

(c) Kiana Darija Koval