[if your complexion is a mess] by Harryette Mullen

The speaker looks at contemporary burdens related to beauty in the context of being African or dark skinned. A lot of care went into this. It's packed with rhyme and near rhyme, alliteration, and assonance -- especially strong at the end with cancer and rancid. Lots of allusion and frollicking with the language paired with sharp observation, slightly acerbic in tone. 

[if your complexion is a mess]

if your complexion is a mess
our elixir spells skin success
you’ll have appeal bewitch be adored
hechizando con crema dermoblanqueadora

what we sell is enlightenment
nothing less than beauty itself
since when can be seen in the dark
what shines hidden in dirt

double dutch darky
take kisses back to Africa
they dipped you in a vat
at the wacky chocolate factory

color we’ve got in spades
melanin gives perpetual shade
though rhythm’s no answer to cancer
pancakes pale and butter can get rancid

From the book Recyclopedia by Harryette Mullen, published by Graywolf Press, 2006.