Christmas time the family packs up

Hundreds of miles to Detroit as it's called

Every year another journey etched into my memory

Driving down a dusty road, abandoned buildings surround us

"That's where I took drum lessons"

He points to a lot of empty scaffolds

"I used to play baseball here"

Tall, wild weeds

"My friend lived right there"

Wood skeletons

I remember it well heading out of town

Where it was considered "decent enough to stay"

Leaving a jungle of dead houses and approaching silence

His silence

"YOU need to fix this.

YOU need to make sure more young black boys live you do

We need education to fix this"

His solution: education

Coming from a line of hard working people, I feel the push

Those who've long escaped from the bankrupt land I have etched

I feel the push to represent my race in all I do

The chronic reminder to serve, given all that I have...

Haunts all of my aspirations

A combination of independent interest and that... moral push

from those who love me

Expands and focuses the journey I plan to take my life upon

I'm graduating now, that journey is about to begin

I don't know where, but when I feel the push

I'll let it take me