The Color of Water is Brown

Beatriz G. Pacheco

I am six years old
And my eyes are brown,
The color of the muddy Rio Grande.
He is six years old
And his eyes are blue,
The color of the Pacific Ocean.
Such a small difference.
Such a huge difference.
As vast as the ocean.
He will always color the water
Blue.
The color of the ocean
That his parents took him to see
on vacation last year.
Everyone will tell him how beautiful
It is.
I try to color the water
Brown.
The color of the mud that mixes
With the water
In the muddy Rio Grande.
The only water I have ever seen
Except for the water from the faucet,
Which has no color.
They tell me that my picture is ugly.
No one recognizes the brown water.
Why are my experiences,
Different yet part of who I am,
Considered wrong?
I am six years old, and my eyes are brown.

Originally from New Mexico, Beatriz Gonzales Pacheco graduated with both a Bachelor  and a Master of Arts degree in English from Eastern New Mexico University.  She currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky, where she is a high school English teacher at Saint Xavier High School. Pacheco is the recipient of the Xaverian Brothers Award for Faculty Excellence (2008) and the Theodore Ryken Award (2009). Pacheco is currently writing a novel.