The Box 69: TAN

#36
Color: Tan
March 6, 2011
Song: "You Gotta Be" Des'ree



For my friend Elaine Porter, who dropped some serious history on me...over cawfy...with love.


Tan lips
Sip tan cawfy
Glow tan in the sun
Talks of tan youths
in the tan sands of outer Pasadena
A place we've never heard of
A place we've never been.

This was a new place
This old Pasadena.
1959...
1972...
All points in between
All hell broken loose
And ran free
Over my tan sistah.
California was the new land
The wild west made tame
Sandy tan beaches
With dune dudes
And good times.
But a closer look
Revealed specks of truth
Hidden in the desert.
Little tan children
Tan teens
Sent to far away schools
in the tan sands of outer Pasadena
A place we've never heard of
A place we've never been.

When you've only been around your kind
Tan has no meaning
because you're the same.
Right?
No.
We see the difference.
We see the shades
And the complicated hues
From different avenues
All so unique
And rich.
But they see all the same
Just tan
and suddenly
resting at the edge of the 1960's
is the tan sands of outer Pasadena.
The Massachusetts busing from Compton
The Virginia massive resistance in the desert.
The Mississippi spit and curse
In the tan sands of outer Pasadena
A place we've never heard of
A place we've never been.

Tan stands out
Bold pop in the white school walls.
Tan stands back
Observing a foreign land
Tan stands up
Marching forward in change
Tan isn't boring
Or dull
Tan leaves its mark
A reminder of being pioneers
In the tan sands of outer Pasadena
A place we've never heard of
A place we've never been.

Today I sat and listened
An act of love
Tears streaming
Remembering every grain
The 50 year hour glass
Drop like a brick
Land quietly as a feather
Silently so that no one knows
No one asks
What happened
In the tan sands of outer Pasadena
A place we've never heard of
A place we've never been.