Growing Pains

pressed between pages of unwritten narratives we are dried flowers gasping for a sip of acceptance at a water fountain that fifty years ago, would've denied us the right to drink. denied us the right to be I have been thirsty and lost on streets called hallways and dreams called somedays avoiding the scorching sun's rays, praying for a storm, waiting for a rainbow to ride up out of here. for the kids whose faces are already aging in early grades 'cause the grapevine whispers gruesome gossip from gullible gun-mouthed gargoyles who don't know how to give for the black kids the multiracial kids the ones who don't look like the people in the textbooks for my cousins Micah and Nikaria they won't say you're beautiful. they will ask questions about your hair they will stick things in your hair they will assume they know you. expect to be unfamiliar with invisibility don't answer to the 'n' word willingly a black president will not guarantee your emotional safety so wear a seatbelt at all times. they will expect you to crash cave give up escape shut your eyes and books and run away from the very thing that will save you sing your growing pains, you pain-strewn mosaic, however long it takes you let the grito in your lungs meet the funk in your blood meet the Panther on your tongue meet La Raza in your love you are a cross-cultural sampling that even hip-hop doesn't know how to address yet but keep believing like blossom is the only b-word you'll ever be called dig unearth your roots, find your footing with the gods or the spirits or poetry, wherever you can be yourself 'cause you will be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the madness they won't teach you in school but don't let their wordplay skip the mixtape out of you scratch, shuffle your way back to knowledge and therein your story will be let your warrior instincts dictate your flow and GO! read, discover, learn all you can digest lest you forget where you come from don't forget where you come from or what you are made of contrary to popular belief, darkness is nothing to be afraid of love even when they don't understand you they won't always understand you if true beauty is beyond description then you are beyond translation so don't blame them for not knowing how to speak to you but don't accept anything less than your truth and if you can't find it, write it if you can't see it, speak it we were martyred for centuries so these moments could be this honest honor our fallen by loving your skin and every Huey that gave a hue to make you and when the world bends your stem and threatens to break you bloom.