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.