I am the night sky, all-consuming and heavy. I am the oil in your car, the rubber of your tires, essential and necessary for motion. I am the dreadlocks of a black mother, the worn hands of a black father home from work, the ink of the Founding Father's pen, the dilated pupils of a hopeful black boy, Obama's black hair before we wore him grey. I am the very bedrock on which any great nation is built. I am not the absence of color, for I have absorbed them all. I am not jealous of the other colors, although I am not in the rainbow. I am not jealous of fire, for no matter, how bright the flames glow, the fire will die and ashes to ashes it will go. I am the shadow that follows you all your life, surely following in step right behind you. I am the slender stripes on the back of the sleek tiger, the stripes on the zebra, I am the primed, and powerful panther, ready to pounce. Creased, Midnight, Obsidian, Patent Leather shoes the moonwalking penny loafers of a King. I am the revolver hidden at your bedside and the bible beside it. The blackened cancerous lung of a smoker, and the x-ray used to diagnose it. BB King's Lucille, Johnny Cash's guitar. I am the finest caviar. I am not at all jealous of the light, for it too has its time. I am not jealous of the light, because those who fear my darkness find comfort in me in the night time.