Open Mic Jitters

At the age of 18, most kids got their first tattoo.

I went to my first open mic.

And I was so scared to push my tongue and go,

I didn't want to know

I still wrote with training wheels.

I learned to early in life that silent

is how they want you to be.

Silent as a refugee trying to come back home

with the taste of freedom smuggled between my teeth.

I would write poetry in the life lines in my palms

to every breath I means I am destined for greatness.

I write poetry so she knows there is life after survival,

I write poetry so that black boy on the street corner knows

he can fly, but slinging drugs and smoking out mother nature

will never get him high enough to touch clouds.

I wrote poetry because I learned too late in this life,

this body is the only thing that has ever been mine.

This voice is a megaphone cry heard 'round the world,

and I sing my voice like church bells,

like it's a theme song to the most blessed day of my life.