(EQUALITY IN AFRIKAANS)
There is something
boiling
Boiling within us.
Our youth’s nation.
AND
they continue to tell us to…
Turn off the kettle.
The whistle is too loud.
AND
the more they tell us to turn off the kettle,
The more fire they add,
AND
The kettle gets,
Louder
AND
LOUDER…
You know what glass does
when the fire gets real hot?
IT BREAKS
But
I’m not glass and my words are not fragile.
Consider this,
RAW
Pure, Flawed, Tainted, Innocent souls
We become victims of
Our history
Our struggles
Our fight
Our achievements
Our goals.
How does this sound?
Kids are getting shot in Brownsville
WHILE
Artisanal horseradish is selling for $74 in Williamsburg
AND
Dinner at a high end restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn cost $225 per person
YET
25 percent,
And climbing,
of Brooklyn’s population receives food stamps.
Brooklyn has become “The Tale of Two Boroughs”
With wine and guns in parallel worlds.
We whistle equality
while the wind blows and our whistle fades
We whistle equality
Once A-gain…
Because we are young.
We are thrown into the box of,
“I don’t know what I want”
“It’s a phase”
“We are young”,
But this is OUR reality
So I’ll press the keys on this board and
Unlock a world of
E Q U A L I T Y
A world where
Pocketbooks are made the same size because we are all capable of holding
A greater capacity.
A world where my education isn’t a mirage a deferred dream
or just a wish
But it is continuously MY reality.
A world where at MY school,
Whether it is in
In Bedstuy or Manhattan,
I can open any text book and on page 6 find the word auspicious
And still be held responsible to know what it means.
A world where my skin color is not an excuse, for me to say
I CAN’T
Because I expect to get a 1600 on my SAT’s
And that is all that my skin says should be considered
for me to be classified as smart
cause I’m of a minority
The Affirmative Action
TUH!
You trynna’ to say I can’t retain as much?
I don’t hold enough?
You got it wrong.
I hold TOO much.
So I’ll turn on the kettle and let it boil,
and boil,
and boil,
Until the whistle gets SO loud
Only a revolution can silence it.
Love is a revolutionary act
And so is
EQUALity.