Mandisa Austin | Zuleiyma Ruiz | Stephanie Cruz | Angela Cason | Andrew Viera |
Lindsay Allen | Jaja Kinyanna | Luis Garcia | Christy Burris
By Mandisa Austin
Life for blacks has been so hard
All that we fought for has only got us so far
We have been beaten and abused
And all our lives refused
We stand out without a doubt
When it comes 2 HIV we are the biggest to count
Our minds are filled and our hearts are hollow
About the past and knowledge we need for tomorrow
Our ancestors have cried
Over places where the dead lye
We have stumbled and we have crawled
And we are still being judge by them all
How does it feel to see someone hanging
Let’s just say you’ll never be the same
The happy people that used to sing
Now have their hearts filled with shame
In slavery you’re not a man
And your life can be taken away by the wave of a hand
You’re made to feel so small
And think your nothing at all
We have come so far
It’s important to remember who we are
A future without a past is nothing at all
Even the greatest people fall.
By Mandisa Austin
My hair is curly
And most days I feel so ugly
I look so strange
Everyday I can’t help but to feel the same
My family hurts me more than any other
They value me less than my younger brother
I feel so ashamed
My whole life I caught the blame
Time after time I’m belittled
When it comes to life and death I’m stuck in the middle
I can’t scream and I can’t shout
I know better then to open my mouth
I have been teased more than I can bare
My life has never been fair
Its more to life than death that I fear
Everyday its nothing but insults that I hear
So I ask why am I so different
Is it because I’m special and unique
Then I figured out
That that’s the way god made me.
By Stephanie Cruz
Sadness, was visible in the eyes of the fatherless,
Lonesome, pig tailed little girl,
Who dreamed of having him by her side.
Gloomy, she felt the day of her birthday,
Because he was not there to embrace
His pride and joy.
Heartbreaking, was the experience of making father’s day card and grams
That sat in a drawer undelivered.
Distressing, was the passing of time that she would never hear,
“You’re my baby girl”
Grief, was all she had when she thought of him,
But refused to be infused by anguish and heartache.
Façade, off gladness instead, while her heart beat the song of sorrow.
Desire, to see him again will not heed, no way, it will not fray,
Until her last dying day.
Hope, never ceased, thus wished to see her father,
But she would not ask her mother, why bother.
She knew all too well, her virtue less father’s actions, which
Caused her mother to flee with me and be free from tyranny.
Destiny, she was sure might reunite them again.
Pondering of how it will be to see him again and if she did,
How will she respond to this stranger?
After all, he was just a biological father to her lovely heart, and no other!
Miserable, was each year after year, that she waited to hug him and love him,
And this day never came; now a teen she thinks, what a lame game!
She now curses him and the thought of how he just forgot,
His only daughter.
By Zuleiyma Ruiz
From behind the tinted glass
I watch as the world goes by
Moving, changing, developing,
Yet I remain the same,
Untouched by time and change,
I see as humanity takes it steps,
Two forward, one back,
Getting ahead,
Yet falling behind
Caught up with the new,
Forgetting the important truth,
We are all the same,
No matter from where we came.
By Angela Cason
Her natural beauty could be considered
The eighth wonder of the world,
But, her temple can shatter the silence
Just like a hurricane.
She can control the elements,
From the wind to the water.
Her eyes spark a blazing fire
To be ceased at her command.
She rides the winds
And moves the water.
She shifts the earth
And creates the fire.
As she moves,
She becomes one with the flame.
The fire dances through her
Just as she dances through it.
A flutter of delicate lashes
Summons a gentle breeze.
Her dark shining halo
Creates the scents of spring.
She is the winds most beautiful disaster,
Creating and destroying.
She is a perfect crisis;
She is a hurricane.
Andrew Viera
When she opens her eyes and awakens from her sleep,
I swear the world wakes with her.
When words leave her mouth,
I swear the world listens.
When she graces her face with a smile,
I swear the world smiles…but,
When she sheds tears of sorrow and hate,
I swear the world falls back to sleep to avoid her pain.
When she screams because of the agony and the anguish,
I swear the world turns its back.
When she has no reason to live,
I swear the world does nothing to prove her wrong…but,
I swear when she does wake from her sleep,
I’ll be there to wake with her.
I swear when she speaks,
I’ll be there to listen.
I swear when she does smile,
I’ll be there to smile with her.
I swear when she cries,
I’ll be there to cry with her.
I swear when she screams,
I’ll be there to scream with her.
I swear that when she feels it is her time to die,
I’ll be there to die with her.
I swear when the world turns its back on you…I will not.
By Lindsay Allen
Left
Right
Left…right?
I think I forgot
Was I ever taught?
Sure, everyone was.
I’m everyone?
I’m no one.
Just breathe.
In
Out
In…no.
That’s not right.
Is it left?
Doubt it.
There was nothing to start with.
Don’t hit me please!
Let me get on my knees.
Don’t worry about me.
I have clothes and something to eat.
Most of the time.
They don’t have time.
To teach me anything.
It’s okay, everyone knows how to bleed.
By Jaja Kinyanna
Someday,
I see myself making it through,
Surpassing all of the pain.
Someday,
All of my wrongs
I will make right
My soul is fighting
The good fight.
Because
I know right now
I can’t see where I am
But when the smoke clears
I’ll be where I want.
And all the pain will melt within me
My light shining through my heart.
So,
I won’t go
I won’t be
Who they want to see.
I won’t be anything less
Than me.
By Luis Garcia
The voices that come and go
Leave a sentiment of disgrace
The place that I once call home
Took my breath away
And left me forgotten in the past
People that call themselves my friends
Are downhill in a place called past
Where dreams and hopes
Are nowhere to come alive
Because they now belong
To the deep seas of darkness
The road of broken dreams
The path to a lifeless universe
Where voice are not longer heard
Because the human existence faded away
Agony consume all the love in humanity
It annihilated my soul
It took my breath away
And with advise
It took my life away.
By Christy Burris
A match, a wall
Trapped in one
Swipe, gaze
Smile, drop
Costume
Dust,
Large and small
Blare
to Drop
Rise to the sky
Scorched grain of nothing
Be free.