Where am I from?

Location

Given this simple question one would answer, "Logan square of course."
 
Look a little deeper and you might answer, "well he lives in Logan square, but really he's much closer to Humboldt park."
 
A little deeper and you can say "he's from Chicago."
 
Broaden out the spectrum and you say, "well his origins come from Mexico and Puerto Rico, which in time came from Spain."
 
But look much deeper because deep isn't deep.
 
Deep is when you think 
You really think
You think why we can't be normal
You think why the man on the corner of Sacramento and Palmer greets you with,
 
"Orale ese queres un poco de marihuana? Come on mahnn it's just a blunt it's not going to kill you? Que? Don't be like that!! Would chu be like that with mouthful of lead?
*BANG*
See now you won't be getting the munchies after you hit it."
 
Why is it that the Hispanic man makes everyone worse.
Everything worse
Every second out of proportions 
Violence is not the answer.
 
That is why I am not any of what I am above. That is just what I have been branded as. Branded with. Labeled to be for the rest of my life because a Puerto Rican trying to be a white boy can't make it in this world.
 
I can't make it according to you because you think I can't 
But that's your mind and I won't mess with that empty can.
 
But I didn't make it just by spitting cold poetry and turning a few frowns upside down.
I didn't make it by kissing up to those above me.
I made it by being who I want to be, by being the message I preach about.
By being true to myself.
 
Stay true to yourself and you'll be true to the world
Because I believe that honesty is the counter to all violence
Stay true to your feelings
True to yourself
True to your mind
True to the world
True to your heart
True to your loved ones
True to your unloved ones
True to the strangers
True to the oddities
True to pariahs 
True to the north and all sides
Of a coin because 
you can flip a coin 
And it will land heads or tails
But whatever it lands on
It's still the same coin it was before.

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