Cotton Lady

Her face is like leather
blackened beyond darkness.
The blazing sunlight 
only brings lines.
Each day she 
collects the cotton
for the man who is 
white as snow.
White cotton 
for white as snow.
Scars from 
a thousand years
of servitude.
Blood from the 
thorns of the fields.
stain her clothes.
but inside her heart
lives a light
a tiny glimmer of hope.
Not for herself 
but for her children
and their children.
A secret place
Where the color white
is just another
shade of rainbows.
And freedoms dance
is a right not a gift.