======================================================
 Writing.Com Item ID: #779983
 Title:  Lovely Sisters
 Item Type: Static Item
 Brief:  Inspired by a novel and remembrances of my adolescence
 Last Modified: 11-19-2003 @ 12:49pm
======================================================

          Lovely Sisters

I never called you sister,
but looking back
         I can see
         that we were
sisters. And we are.

I never saw you
as an enemy,
         but I failed
         knowing you
and how you felt at heart.

"Black is Beautiful!"
I heard the words,
         knew their truth,
         knew your worth
was no less than mine.

Knowing you was a gift.
From you I learned
         how to see
         more than me.
My world's expanded.

What gift I gave you
I do not know.
         I hope it
         is fairness
that you remember.

______________________

This poem was written for an English project on the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. It affected me profoundly -- much more than I imagined when I'd read about the novel. Writing this was, for me, a natural response, which I later decided to use for the creative section of the project.

The title may change.