COLLEGE DAYS

How does it feel to enjoy life?
She's asking you--she never has.
She's scraped for the nothing she has,
While lesser souls were worry free.

She hurt because she didn't fit in, and it was so subtly dismissed.
The only Black face in a crowded lecture hall,
Lonely when everyone else was among friends.

On the weekends she scrubbed floors at a potato chip factory,
Her back so sore she could hardly stand.
The labor left her exhausted, and she couldn't hold up her head.

Her poverty reeked like rotten eggs,
Each year harder to bear.
Snickers and glances at her tattered wear from
Lily-white girls whose fathers bought them Mustangs.

Her degree in hand, she raises it high
The fancy black lettering spells her name.
With the seclusion she felt, and the exclusion she knew
She still made it through--
So why does she feel so blue?