Between
folded into girlhood out of parchment paper
bare bark belly dancing brown untouched
by sun and man. bitter brown but not
coffee or chocolate or butterscotch
brown. raw sugar calloused palm
barefoot in some cash crop
somewhere brown.
Blue Ivy brown. the daughters of
big-lipped fathers brown like Flint water
crisis color brown like copper pipes. two buckets
on one splintering stick. starved root and mulch and parched
flower blossoming anyway brown. black sheep in the baby’s
breath brown.
black brown.
and the fine
fabricated
line
between.
***