Nobody said Melungeons,

When I was a kid.

 

 

They talked about Mulattos

and part-blacks,

 

 

sometimes calling Daddy

and his kin colored Franklins.

 

 

so I asked him, “Daddy

are we African?”

 

 

He didn’t answer,

didn’t know the answer.

 

 

Then I asked his sister,

“Viola, what are we?”

 

 

Irish, she claimed, Black Irish

with sun kissed skin.

 

 

“Indian,” Grandma Sally said

“with blue eyes.”

 

 

But no one said,

Melungeon.