Poetry

Are You Ready?
Do You Know?
Why Do We?
Untitled #1
Untitled #2
From the Heart, What is going on black youth?

Are You Ready?
Mical Asefaw

In a crowd of millions, maybe even billions of young people,
stands one person who can make you and I equal, one person
who can slow down the world's pace and make it a better place.
This youth may not know it...but...

They will be expected to be respected, they will lead those who can't see out of darkness and clear the pathway of life expectancy. There will be no bullet to stop the progress of which they will spark of which will forever be.

They will select not just accept their choices, will create their own definitions and not let the media do it for them. This person will express the power they never knew they possessed and fight against misperception and miseducation that others force upon one another.

In a world of too many people and not enough human beings, this human being will end world hate and anti-youth sentiment that has perpetuated, slowly inflated in today's societies.

In this crowd somebody understands that they are living, not just existing, and that existing is not enough, yet many of us sadly accept only this level of freedom.

But, in this crowd is someone who knows that there are no limits to stop them from the changes they will bring-- no bars, horizontal or vertical, metal or invisible. No obstacle great or small, mental or physical that will stand in their way.

Within this crowd of millions, maybe even billions...I'm asking...Are you ready? Because this person... is...you...

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Do You Know?
Torre' Mitchell

Every day I go toe to toe!
I have to watch my back when I am walking to the corner stoe!
I can't trust nobody not even a pistoe!
I don't know you, but you're not a friend or foe!
It's not my fault, but I feel shame when the neighbors complain and you
MAKE me the blame!
You kick in my door and lay me on the floor when it was really the man that
is wealthy, not poor!
Do you know!
Lord protect me from this thang we call the game!
Sitting here watching my people suffer and soul die from crack and cocaine!
They say GOD works in mysterious ways but who will move me out of the
way of an AK when they start to spray?
I call you, but it takes a while!
By the time you get here there will be frowns and no more smiles!
I'm out here trying to live nice & lavish!
Lots of nights eating steak, potatoes, and cabbage!
I'm out here trying to floss and gloss!
When you flossin' you take a loss!
How am I to do right when it's not in my sight?
Do you know?
You arrest me for little crimes I don't commit!
I am so sick of this shit!!!!!!!!!!
Is it because of my color, skin, who I am, or maybe because that you can?
I'm a young warrior in training!
Soon I am going to have to rule over your grandchildren, and do you want
me to rule the same thing?
Are you jealous of me? Envy me? Hate me? Or just pissed at me?
You're mad because you're not me!
You're locking me up young, and cutting out my tongue!
I am the future, and need to be nurtured!
I ask for a job and you hand me a pail!
I ask for a safe place and you throw me in jail!
Its cold out here and I need my heat!
I will do anything to keep the wind behind my back and the ground beneath my feet!
Please don't tell me as an adolescent I'm going to have to pick up
my Smith and Wesson!
When all I ask, from the law, is for a little protection!!!!!!
Why do we?
Do you know now?

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Why Do We?
Torre' Mitchell

Why do we kill each other?
Why do we fight each other?
Why do we hurt each other?
Why do we steal from each other?
Why do we lie to our mother?
Why do we?
Why do we blame the law?
Why do we have unfamiliar flaws?
Why do we at school run through the halls?
Why do we rob Peter to pay Paul?
Why do we stereotype all?
Why do we disrespect our momo?
Why do we?
Why do we kill them blame?
Why do we walk around with no shame?
Why do we say we have bluffed when it is time to be cuffed up?
Why do we get mad when we are no longer in the custody of our dad, but in a jail sail going mad?
Why do we act like a grown person, but when it is time for jail we are yelling, screaming, and cursing?
Why do we?
We act as if we are adults that are mature.
When we are still getting paid for daily chores.
We act grown and should be treated grown.
By the age of 14 you know the difference between right and wrong.
Is Prop 21 ok? Do we think maybe it will lead us to a safer day?
Do you know now?
Why do we?

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Untitled #1
Kristina McQueen
We seem to have a thing for neglecting
Others
And tomorrow is already the future
Will our children be walking in the
Shoes of a business man or the
Shoes of a criminal
Will they be sent to the workplace
Or solitary confinement
Will their future be small or not at
All if they don't do their homework
Assignments
We ask the wrong questions
If we even ask them at all
You ask why they don't do good in school
But not why they barely show up
The less we do to educate
The more bars and fences will go up
You say that this world is not a safe
Place to live in, but we make it this way
We will do nothing to fix it
So I don't see why we complain
The future will be here tomorrow
And I hope you call them to class
And instead of telling them that they mess up
Help them fix it fast
Encourage the youth to see the positive
And the potential that they have
Because what they become is a reflection
Of you
How they will handle things is how they
Were handled by you
Don't do things just for yourself
Because in the future you will realize how
Much it hurts you
Because violent youth will be the violent truth.

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Untitled #2
Kristina McQueen
I see how you operate
I am afraid of your affect on me
I am afraid that if I curse then you will arrest me
Will my future go down the drain
With in the next policy that you make
Will I obtain the image you want me to take
Should I point the finger
At you or take the responsibility for your actions
Against me
I believe in the civil rights movement they forgot
To fight for one thing
Because no one fought for the rights of youth
To be able to speak their minds
No one fought for the youth to be safe at night
You run from us instead of helping us
Because the media told you we are nothing
But trouble
But that is a double negative
The media forgot to do their math
Because two negatives make a positive
And most youth reflect that
Because for every ten children in jail,
A lot more are going to school
And doing good things with their time
But the media flashes the ones who lead dangerous
Lives
So if you keep running from us you will run
Into a dead end
And by the time you make it back
We will already have made it in
Because we will be much older, around your age now
And we won't take you back no way no how
Because you left us behind
With a government determined to
Keep us down
And since it is against the law for us to speak
Up, and there was no one around
So, we fell victim to their games
Because you there was no reason for you to be afraid
It was just your inability to want to make a change

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From the heart, what is going on black youth?
Torre' Mitchell
We have been in slavery for so many years. It is so ridiculous that we are killing each other and giving the government of today (and the past) what they want. The government wants black youth to stay incarcerated and jailed as youth so that we will not have any warriors to protect our women and babies. Speaking of babies, while you are in jail who is going to help us to make our babies strong and healthy? Who is going to teach them to be a man or a woman if they do not have the right adult figure to show them?

Another thing that is killing you and me is you pushing dope into your brain instead of pushing hope into your brain. You have changed our death from southern rope to northern dope. I'm really disappointed that you don't know that you are killing your own people, making us less and less. Do you think that this makes our ancestors proud? They were hung, raped, sold away from their homes, whipped and scarred for life, had hound dogs sicked on them, ran all the way to the north, and died so that you can get an education. How do you repay them? I'll tell you how: you sell dope to your people and kill them, you disrespect your women and beat on them, you do not take pride in that the fact that you can go and get an education and be someone. Instead, you stand on the corner and let your life pass you by with no hope or future, you neglect your family and leave them alone in the dark to make the same mistake you made, you leave your women to be heartbroken and to depend on the wrong men or depend on other substances, you leave your daughter to fall in the hands of the wrong man, you leave your son not knowing how to be a man, and you leave your children to suffer. How do you feel knowing that you are caught in a system made to stop you and kill you before it is too late, before you have all the power of the world? This has been the plan since we were brought to this so-called place of freedom and separated from our homes.

I will tell you the right way to make your ancestors proud and that is by doing the exact opposite of all the bad things above. We are the chosen force and people. We need to know that we can rise above this and shock the world, put this system under the ground and shock the world. It starts with you.

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