They saw your skin.
And they saw black.
They blotted you
with a black
as black as the ink
and as the night
which some storm had lashed.

They saw your sins.
And they saw black.
They cursed
and stabbed you
in the front,
in the back.
But waves of hope,
prayers and songs
swept you high,
so high that you commanded
stars to bejewel the black sky
and to spangle again
the limp banner
battered by many a storm.

They saw your skin.
And they saw the Dream.

WILLIAM SIENES III

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poem-for-barack-obama/