I AM BLACK

(poems go here)

I write because I don't know how not to,

how not to express the pains and gains

from the claims and vanity of this life.

I write because I dread my greatest fear.

fear of living and dying without an impact,

an impact to change lives and create a better tomorrow.

I write because I must.

because I must be different from and similar to what they think I am,

They think I am that fried chicken eater, that baby making factory,

that aimless youth, that girl from the southside of Chicago, but maybe I am.

And may be I am

a dreamer, an achiever,

an individual that represents a race and a course,

Maybe I am black because I represent a change.