Every morning as I take my bath
I scrub twice as hard as the day before.
Hard enough to turn my black skin white,
Not because I want to
But because the boys at school tend to make fun of me.
Should I fail to become white,
I hope at least my skin would render itself
Just as brown as theirs.
Benjamin is a Congolese born poet, a biotechnology student at the University of Johannesburg and a member of UJ’s poetry arts academy.