Words For Warfare

Say her name out loud and hear her laughter
almost as warm as a story,
big and round, full of textures and past.
It may be the one I’ll remember now that
the women, my small nation,
are all gone.

And my name is still to come

---- Jewelle Gomez

Last stanza of her poem - Pardo—Searching for a name

Pardo was a 12th century Portuguese word often used for darker races, sometimes it meant earth-colored, sometimes it meant an in-between color, sometimes it meant gray.