“What’s wrong with being black?”
I am out of words,
To how selfish our world is.
Is this how I am destined to be back?
It has been a year since I died.
Master, I thought you liked me but I was wrong
I thought you loved me, but I was wrong
I once believed in you, but then I died.
And now, I am having my second life.
Have you forgotten?
I got 9 lives.
I should once know
I was naive back then.
And once again,
What’s wrong with being black?
You killed me again.
But now, you called me your “bad luck”.
I got 7 lives left.
But I was killed for the 6th times already
So I am left with my last life.
But Death please, I am not yet ready.
And now, I am so much in joy!
For my last life, I felt love.
My heart is crying,
My eyes are smiling while crying.
For my last life, I still asked the same last question,
“What’s wrong with being black?”
The Creator hugged me and answered ,
“Nothing is wrong in my creations.”
He added,
“All are blessed.
You are beautiful just the way I created you.
I love you for being BLACK.”
— Chenny Marie Cantano
Author’s note:
This poem was inspired by a picture of a black cat that I have seen in my news feed in my social media account in Facebook. I intently stop to this picture which was being described in a post that it has been ignored by a lot of online users in Facebook. It suddenly hit me that a black cat was being used as a traditional belief here in the Philippines as a carrier of misfortune. That is the main reason why some people who take these beliefs too seriously are putting the life of these cats into a tragic situation. It is either they will brutally shove them away from their paths or worst, they will kill it.
What I want to emphasize here in this poem is that equality doesn’t only limit to the rights of the humans but it also applies to the rights of animals to be treated equally despite their differences. They also have feelings just like us.
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