Inspired by Langston Hughes's "Theme for English B"

My Theme For English B

I've been called a lot of things:

White, mixed, gay, stupid, stuck-up

But none of them are true.

Hardly anyone calls me what I am:

Young, unique, and black.

I can't control how people feel about me

I just have to deal with their reactions

Only they refuse to see what I want them to:

The real me.

Greatly, wonderfully, marvelously different me

Painfully, frighteningly, scornfully different me

Shattering the windows of my soul

Replacing them with crimson bricks

So that I can hide from the world

In peace.

So don't hate me or dislike me

I'm not asking you to like or even love me

Just accept that you're you

And I'm me

And that's the way

It was meant to be.