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Wilted
Sometimes flowers wilt
They dry up and kiss their stems goodbye
Their stem, their support system, finally lets go of the broken dried petals and they fall
effortlessly to the ground...
Sometimes people can be flowers too
When I loved you, you made me a sunflower
A sunflower with healthy petals
And you, you were my stem, my support system...
Then you left...
How can a flower stand with no stem?
Is it still a flower? Just because it has petals?
How could a person stand with no limbs?
You forced me to stand with no legs
To exist with no arms
To be tall, with no stem...
I kissed you goodbye...
And I fell effortlessly to the ground...
Ghetto Flowers
Cut me some ghetto flowers.
The flowers that sprout over a black boys grave
The flowers that prove that something beautiful can grow from a story so dark
Cut me Trayvon Martin roses and Philando Castile daisies.
I want Eric garner tulips and Mike Brown dandelions.
I want Stephon Clark sunflowers and Emmett till carnations.
Cut me some ghetto flowers
The flowers that smell like grandma's kitchen on a Sunday
The flowers that scream “boy don’t wear your shoes in my house”
Flowers that grow until the street lights come on
Cut me the flowers that bloom in the neighborhood drug dealers yard
You know the flowers they be selling on the corner?
10 for a dime 25 for an eighth and 100 for a zip?
I want the blackest flowers you can find
Flowers that been through some shit
Bring me some ghetto flowers
I called us flowers because heat doesn’t burn us it helps us grow
The rain that pours doesn’t drown us, it’s the reason we bloom
and The wind that comes with it don’t do shit but show us what we can handle
So cut me some ghetto flowers
Cause they start movements
They start Martin Luther King Protest and Malcolm X Riots
They are the voices of a generation, of every generation
These flowers aren’t ghetto because they’ve been broken, they’re ghetto because they’re better than ever
You only see them as ghetto because you’ve never taken the chance to appreciate them
To hold them
To water them
To grow them
To show them it isn’t their fault that they grow this way
You put them in boxes and tried to slow their growth with things out of their control
Like Jim Crow
And Putting them on boats
Like detesting them because of how their petals grow
So bring me the blackest flowers you can find
Cause those flowers didn’t grow easy
Those flowers were planted with animosity and grew with eminence
Thank God for the flowers that prove that something beautiful can grow from a story so dark
From One Flower to Another (Inspired by Louise Gluck)
This is the earth? Then
I don’t belong here.
I am a flower that bloomed on the wrong side
of earth
Though I may be beautiful
My roots burn in this soil
My petals wilt in this air and
My stem holds a weight it cannot bear
Survival is more of a dream
Flowers that look like me can’t breathe
We can’t grow freely on any yard, lot or street
We can’t spread branches like the trees do
We don’t grow pretty petals or produce fruit
The environment here cannot sustain me
I know my silence is more pleasing to you than my screams
But
I wish to live, to grow as I please
I wish to be as free as the air that caresses my wilted petals
I wish to set this land ablaze and grow a field of flowers that grow like me
I want to be a flower so free
That the moon, the sun and trees feel envy
Gone will be the shackles of this soil
The shriveling of my petals will cease
And my stem will finally feel relief
I'll be at peace on this earth, that was never meant for me.
And I knew you once
Before... you were human
But now we’re trapped and our life source is a seed
And we’re nothing but flowers that wish to be as trees
Black Thoughts
America was cut from the skin of my ancestors
Their skin has been sewn, cut, stepped on, and burned
You’ll never understand my skin until you have it
So come take a step into my black
And try to tell me now...that America is great again
Tell the Trayvons, Sandras, Mikes and Emmetts
Black boy tears fill the water like Emmetts
Though he is not my kin, his pain is the same as my ancestors
Every time another Emmett is made, Black lives matter again
America isn’t in flames, it’s already burned
Step into my black
And feel this pain of being an “it”
I’ve always been an “it”
Sometimes I think of what would happen if I were like Emmett
This time it’s 2020, and it’s my black skin being beaten
It’s my tongue cut out, silenced like my ancestors
Then my skin will ignite with hell flames, and America will be burned
Now finally... my black life matters again
It’s happening again
Trayvon bled, Michael swung, and Addie Mae fried... they all felt it
Shot, Hung and Burned
Look! There goes another Emmett...
There goes my ancestors...
And it all fades to black
It always fades to black
Here comes death, knocking on our door again
But gone are my ancestors
There doorbell broke a long a time ago, Now they’re done with it
And Gone are the “Emmetts”
We’ll always remember how sweetly they burned
Skin Burned.
Black.
Cries of “Emmett’s”
Again... and Again
Will we ever be done with it?
I think so... for I am not my ancestors...
Emmett’s young soul burned with sorrow
The stories of my Ancestors are Black with pain
The story will happen again, It always does....
Meet My Anxiety
Meet my anxiety
She turns lakes into oceans
Fire into hell flames
My brain to a mess of assumptions and she drives me insane
She is the one who makes every situation bigger
She makes me bitter
I don’t think you’re cheating on me , she does
She makes me bitter
I don’t think you’re lying to me, she does
She makes me bitter
Meet my anxiety,
When you tell me that you love me, I believe it
But she always finds a way to deceive me
“I love you” fell on listening ears but it also fell on fear
It fell on thoughts of not being good enough
Your words fall on me and she screams her worries to my listening heart
Sometimes your words fall on me like snow , there so pretty but she makes them feel so cold
Meet my anxiety
Meet my panic attacks
Meet the reason my emotions are barely intact
Meet me and meet she
She that makes me forget I’m a person
I could be going through my day and suddenly my heart hurts
Suddenly my mouth doesn’t work
Suddenly my chest gets tight and my lungs forget how to
In...
Out...
In...
Out...
Breathe!
I’m begging her please just let me be
Just let me be in love
Just let me be me
Let me live free from you
Meet my anxiety.
The one that turns a mistake into a death sentence
A flower to a forest
Me into a mess
Tear after tear
Day after day
Meet my anxiety
And get used to her too
When you met me, you met she
And I hope you learn to love her like I’ve learned to love you
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