Life is a river running endlessly into the Depression Ocean.
i do my best to get out, but the current always pulls me back in.
i try to make friends, people i can trust, depend on, and communicate with,
but none of those relationships last long.
Everyone is exactly the same.
i am the only one who is different.

Life is a prison that incarcerates innocent, young, and creative souls only to brainwash them into dull, normal, corrupted people.
i can create a certain image i want the world to view me: polite, mature, and lady-like.
But how they see me is not truly who i am.
i am constrained by the bars of Life.
i am brainwashed by the demands from the media.
i am imprisoned by the rules of society.
i try to break out, only to be arrested again.
i decide to give up.
Escaping is futile.
The verdict has been made.
i am sentenced for Life.

Life is a reoccurring dream full of illusions, delusions, and fears.
i get excellent grades, A’s and B’s.
my GPA is a weighted 4.3.
my SAT score is over a 1600.
i can get into any college i want, but any college i want cannot get me.
i know what i want to do with my life, but my life does not know what to do with me.
Why get good grades if they do not truly measure my intelligence?
Why study hard for a test that only measures how well i can take it?
i believe hard work can result in success, but how can i achieve something that is not real.
It is just a dream, fading as i wake up to the cruelty of reality.

Life is set up to keep those in power powerful and those without power powerless.
i am an African American female, 17 years-old.
i can be discriminated against because of my dark complexion.
i can be discriminated against because of my sexual organs.
i can be discriminated against because of my inexperience in life.
i live with the fear of my brother being wrongly convicted or shot by a person who is supposed to be protecting us.
i live with the fear of being raped by a stranger or kidnapped or taken advantage of because of my looks.
i live with the fear of my malleable cousins losing touch with their culture as they become enamored with the white superior’s society.
i live with the fear of having everything taken away from me and my family because we do not have the complexion for protection, or the right amount of money.
my ancestors have been powerless since they were brought to this country.
We may have a black president, but it is just a façade to hide the real corruption under our noses.
i live with the fear of having kids who will suffer because they are not the right complexion, or right gender, or right social class, or right sexuality, or right religion, or right weight.
The only fear i do not live with is the fear of dying.

Life is war, endless battles for survival.
Of course, only the strongest survive.
Battles among countries,
battles among nations,
battles among classes,
battles among races,
battles among genders,
battles among sexualities,
battles against nature,
battles within oneself.
Only one can win.
But everyone still loses.

Life is America, glorious on the outside but full of corruption and hypocrisy inside.
We are free although many are still trapped,
we are rich although most are poor.
We care about money more than each other,
we care about representation more than morals,
we corrupt the young and innocent before they are even born:
Turning princesses into prostitutes,
turning toddlers into thugs,
turning heroes into heroin addicts.
Life starts beautifully like a smiling pure infant, but ends uglier than our feeble bodies festering under the rough and polluted soil.

Life is only here once.
Once it is over, it is over.
What is the point of doing anything if i will eventually die?
my past is predetermined, i have no control over my present, and my future is uncertain.
i only keep living for my parents’ sake.
No one else cares.

Life is a river running endlessly into the Depression Ocean.
i do my best to get out, but the current always pulls me back in.
This cycle will always continue.
We are told times are changing.
We are told we are free.
But the truth is that we are moving backwards not forwards.
We are sinking in the river we call Life, our souls drowning in the Hatred Abyss.
Until we decide to allow love overcome hate just as light overcomes darkness, we will eternally sink deeper and deeper until our entire race, the human race, is extinct.
We must help each other escape the terminal fate that is destined for us in order to progress into a positive future.
But Life prevents us from allowing ourselves to be this intelligent.
This is why Life is meaningless.

This is why i say, Life is the title of this poem.