The Changing Colors of Skin

by Carole Mertz


Though I had no ideographs
like those of a Chinese girl,
I relished the joy of selecting
the colors from the crayon
box. Age, seven years,
my hair was curled by Mother
into fascinating long ringlets,
fascinating even to me.

The marks I made on the page
were likely the first chapters of
my little-girl life. Frustrated though,
I had no just-right color for skin. That
changed, Crayola adjusted. Our
world adapted, too, into these
many new shades of skin. Life
became as fascinating as my curls.


* * * * *

"The Changing Colors of Skin" is from Carole Mertz's forthcoming collection Color and Line (Kelsay Books, January 8, 2021)

Carole Mertz, poet, reviewer, and essayist, is the author of Toward a Peeping Sunrise (at Prolific Press) and the forthcoming Color and Line (with Kelsay Books). She is book review editor at Dreamers Creative Writing and served as judge (in formal poetry) for the 2020 Poets & Patrons of IL contest. Carole resides in Parma, OH.