Struggle in Pride - AR Writings

Painting by Larry Silver - Click the photo to inquire about purchasing from ~Silver Arts~.

Pretty, yellow- toned girl staring through the mirror

Bright blue eyes illuminating, but faded just the same

Light brown hair tumbling down--- a sea of waves caressing her shoulders

A meek individual without a voice

She doesn’t belong.

Swaying her hips from side to side

The music glides her into a fantasy world

She must use this to survive

Such a world of desolation in her eyes

How can she belong?

Slim, frail body

Dancing keeps her sanity

Studio walls encompass her

Can she impact a world in which she doesn’t belong?

The record stops---

Change the song

Outkast---not black or white

“Your beautiful” sounds strange in her mind

Not having a team to play on,

She goes back to the studio

The only place that feels like home

“Are you black or white?”---kids can be so cruel

She doesn’t know anything but Contra tunes

Rhythmic stretches of the leg give the dance identity

Gleaming in the mirror—a tear

Frustrated, she stops and stares

Not this culture or the other

How can one dance not knowing where to draw from?

Her father was this, her mother another

Lost look in her eyes shows the struggle

Characterization in her own movements, but none in her own instance

That was long ago---ten years to be exact

Now this girl knows something different

This yellow-toned girl has depth

And now looks in the mirror at herself,

Relishes in the differences----puts them into her dancing

Curtains open on stage--- heart beating quickly

Pretty yellow-toned girl showing the two worlds from which she came freely

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