Stretch Marks

Be white they told me
Why aren’t you fair
Too dark
Turned darker
Fair, fair, fair up
Then I got you—
Little lines
Shining lines
Pretty and soft stretches of skin
Like the lines I traced on my lover’s neck
Except you’re on my legs—
My stomach,
My shoulders.
I whitened up
Different parts of me.
But it’s no good
Now you want me to get rid of these too.
Is this whiteness
Too dazzling for you?