Ms. Poetry

I remember when I was in class and listening to what my teacher wanted me to write on my page

As I sat there scribbling on my paper I slowly realized that “...the only one who was interested in learning was the teacher”

The used to tell me what was appropriate to know like pythagorean theorem, The Gettysburg Address and how to calculate inertia in physics

However there was something in my heart that was telling me that I was being molded by America’s cookie cutter of how to be a proper citizen

Never actually learning fundamentals about life and only learning watered down versions of history

Being taught that if you speak out of turn you’re wrong

Or if you disagree that you are a communist

And if you use verses as an answer you are being inappropriate

Well it wasn’t until I got my hands on some verses that I’ve learned the things that state education would not tell me

That my ancestors were kings and queens and not slaves

It is okay to be a woman and speak even when not spoken to

And that it is okay to not be okay

Poetry has been the glue that I needed to put the scraps of my life together

Poetry is the food that my starving soul has waited all year for Thanksgiving to feast upon

Poetry is the water that keeps me cool and nourished at the end of a hot summer’s day

Poetry fills in the gaps that my highschool left unfilled

I hope to live my life in a way that my actions could be poetry for someone else’s daughter or son

As I construct this poem I think of all of the powerful poets that I’ve seen that have lead me throughout my journey

Ernestine Johnson, Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Maya Angelou, and of course Audre Lorde

The way their words kept me pressing through the gravel

I even tried to get my answers from church listening the preacher

But fortunately poetry thus far has been my favorite teacher