Half-Breed Boy

This is a poem I wrote tonight, or rather, this morning. I tried writing a song with a similar theme over a year ago and gave up after several attempts. This reminds me of a Langston Hughes poem I read a while back.

Half-Breed Boy
Written by Alexei Moon Casselle
October 4th , 2007

I asked my father late one night why I don’t look like him
He looked right through me, to his glass, and filled it to the brim
I asked my mother bright one day, why I ain’t like her
She lied right through her golden smile and said she wasn’t sure

My sister she has skin like soil, brother’s dark as night
Grandma scolds them every day and sends them from her sight
Grandma tells me I’m the best but I can’t do nothin’ right
She treats me like the white folks that she worked for all her life

I asked my father while we walked, why I don’t look like him
He told me we’re all different but our kinship is within
I asked my mother why I’m white, why I don’t have her skin
She cried into her weathered hands and walked into the wind

My sister she has skin like soil, brother’s dark as night
Grandma beats them, calls them names and tells them they ain’t right
Grandma tells me I’m the good one but I’m weakest of the three
I wish Grandpa was still here, cause he’d tell me what he sees