Striving To Walk Harder

 

1.        A 15 year old black teenager was

2.    Arrested for the death of a

3.      26 year old teacher

 

5.      A 30 year old black man

6.      Was arrested for being in the possession of

7.  A 32 caliber hand gun

 

 

13.                     2010

14.                     America’s first in history 12 year old murder

15.                     And sentence to prison

 

 

17.                     And I’m scared, Ms. Medlin

18.                     Its’ hard to walk with expectations

19.                     When America expects you to walk with ignorance

20.                     Strap to your Achilles heel

 

 

21.                     And we looked at as if

22.                     Education is our last priority

23.                     And me, Oh I’m going to be another lazy black man

24.                     Abandon his child

25.                     And leave them clinked to question marks like mother clinked to babies

26.                      Wondering what was their mistake

 

27.                     Ms.Medlin

28.                     Do you remember telling me that just because

29.                     I was dyslexic

30.                     I am more than what people label me as

 

34.                     So I will rip off diagnostic labels

35.                     That try to box me in about not being the poet I am

36.                     I'll get on this stage with the oppression of a proud black boy

37.                     I’m bending backwards

38.                     So that God can hear me loud and clear

39.                     Because I’m like a acrobat somersaulting,

40.                     Flipping flash backs of those who doubted me

41.                     Tight rope walking on the grace of God, 

42.                     So I need you to have a seat, and

43.                     Hear here

44.                     Because this is the only form of praying I can do

45.                     I'm allowed to do on this stage

 

 

 

55.                     In their eyes, they'll never understand

56.                     That being an artist is just as good as being a doctor or a veternaian

57.                     I’m not that Gang bangger hiding bullets under his garments in fear of cops

 

61.                     But I'm

62.                     only use my tongue to alert ears that this is what

63.                     We Black males are looked at as 

64.                     Because this stage is my neighborhood

65.                     Being out there is where I could be arrested for being another statistic

66.                     One out for four teenagers to graduate high schools

67.                     So that means the person to your left is

68.                     Less likely to graduate high school

 

70.                     And in the zip code 10456 is highest rated in the Bronx

71.                     To have STD’s sexually transmitted destructions

72.                     Dieses that make human bodies

73.                     Look like walking coffins

 

74.                     But here I’m not scored to be another statistic,

75.                     But for loving to slam this poem

76.                     Remember this poem

77.                     As the award winning poem in the best selling book

78.                     And the author me

 

68.                     Ms Medlin help me because

69.                     I don’t want to be another black boy to die

70.                     Wrapped in a cocoon where the crowd isn’t rioting for me anymore

71.                     But sobbing soliloquies

72.                     In the remembrance of who I was

73.                     And I don’t want my mother to be another black mother

74.                     Regretting that she didn’t let your baby boy go

75.                     To write us pass that slavery terms America has us labeled as

76.                     Because I could have been

77.                     That lost child strung out on drugs

78.                     Trying to steal love from the pockets of your purse

79.                     Or you visiting me through a window

80.                     Talking to what could have been the next black brotha to die

81.                     But instead im here

82.                     Interceding in my secret Just like you told me to 

83.                     God,

84.                     Help them understand that this stage is a

85.                     Sanctuary

 

                                                   Vaughn Kelly Jr.