The Skincare Issue: Poetry Roundup
Each issue we feature pieces of poetry and prose from Asian women around the world. Here are this issue’s pieces:
Graceful Inhumanity by Carla M.
(@carla.mar_)
Inspired by:
“O, Gather Me the Rose” by William Ernest Henley
Till time is far from reach, lasso
beauty, For bliss, will early spring.
Value it is, but abruptly tow,
O ne'er neglect fate is blessing.
Becoming ignis fatuus,
Beam til the ave dream fulfills,
Atrocities be riotous,
Raze resistance yet it upfills.
Seldomly I ache for your affinity,
Seldomly, my beau and my swain.
Withal hold, not to rise yours truly,
Perpetual sleep ever wanes.
Fairness perceived by sight or glare,
Become one among muses.
Chimeras nonchalantly come aware,
Yet oblivion diffuses.
It's Spring by Camryn Smith
Oh the possibilities
If I could be a buttercup and honey girl
Less hard scrapes and more dewy sweetness
The kind you like to show your mother or friend
Instead I find myself here with wax burns
Each tug was like when I was yelled at for trying to be someone.
It's hard to have a face.
(of color) by Sharon Pasia
(@sharon_shannon_karen)
Blessed with my papa’s shade,
My skin was sunkissed
Before her beams even reached me
I was born with a gift
A natural colour
That inspires these wanna-be POC white girls
Into burning themselves to a crisp
At your local L.A Tan
This is a love letter to my peeps of color
To all my friends that have been described as
Exotic
Tropical
And Foreign
Where people compare your shade to different cups of coffee
Because in reality, they’re thirsty
For this
Caramel
Cocoa
Hazel
Bronzed Beauty
And they’re lowkey begging to take a sip
This is for the ones
That have people playing the guessing game of where you’re “actually” from
Or have experienced the common American Greeting of, “...Do you speak english???”
I’m sending soo much love to those
whose shade cannot be erased with
Pond’s
Obagi Nu Derm
Papaya Soap
Fair and Lovely
Or any other skin bleaching agent your mama gave you for you to feel “beautiful” at the tender age of 12
I see you.
And I’m so proud of you
Because embracing your color isn’t easy.
It takes a different kind of strength to finally hear and challenge the toxic whispers, tucked away into your subconscious
that started with a cruel game of telephone-
Passed down from colonizers to thousands of bloodlines
Eventually making its way, from the mouths of your loved ones
To you
Who knew words like
Savage
Dirty
Ugly
Ratchet and
Trashy
Had the capability to crush a human spirit
And brainwash generation after generation
Normalizing cultural self hate?
But we out here
we’re killin’ it-
Nippin’ the self hate from the bud,
Tearing it into shreds,
Cutting and unraveling this unnecessary tight rope
Of standards you shouldn’t have to balance on in the first place
Finally hanging up that stupid-ass phone,
breaking a poisonous record that was once on repeat
For almost half a millenia
And HOLY SHIT
I am so proud of you.
For finally basking in the true light,
Unapologetically and unafraid.
Planting the seeds and spreading new words of self love for generations to come.
So please,
Take up all the space you need.
Bask in this garden that you’ve helped create.
As the sun welcomes you with open arms
Because you deserve it-
You always have.
And to those still hiding underneath their parasols-
I see you too.
And friend,
I honestly can’t wait for the moment when you’re ready to finally embrace the sun's glow
And show the world your true color.
Jabs and Jams // by @kai.laniii
What do you find most attractive about people?
Well, lots of things
But what I like
More than anything in the world
is when they are
smooth
Smooth like honey
Their words roll off
The tongue
A smooth, deep mellow
I like them smooth
I wish I could be so smooth
So velvety and tender like
The sounds I love to hear
I’m deep, alright
Rigid with canyons that I love to douse in
Smeared makeup and boiling hot water
I pluck and jab and bleach and sting
But no amount of torture and fortune
And self-care can bring me
The smoothness I long to be
Reciprocal of the smoothness
I love to hear.
I stopped listening to them
The trials and tribulations of this jagged world
And I started listening to me, her, and
The sounds I love to hear
I forget about me
I’m as smooth and tender as I want to be