PoemsBrowse PoemsSlamsFresh DropEchoes
LearnWriting TipsPoetry TermsPoets & ArtistsBooksFor Teachers
ExplorePoetry GenomePoem MapEchoesTake ActionGroups
AboutWrite a PoemDonateSign UpLog In

What We Know


i Come, from a family of adapters.

we Come, from a bowl shaped city

that over flooded like God poured a little bit too much

milk into his cereal.

we’ve been around unstable circumstances and change all our lives.

We Know What the piggy bank a little close

to close to the edge of the counter feels like.

but when we fall, we arise.

not unscathed, but flawless.

 

we were brought up like everybody around us; poor.

our only motivational words from our parents

“Do better than we did”

so we had no choice but to be flawless.

 

we never understood how to accomplish those dreams

we spent all daydreaming in class

not seeing how something as obscure

as a bad education could help us.

in school, we only learned how to ignore our own ignorance

how to forget about the things

that We Don’t Know,

raised to overlook the obvious.

it’s not like we don’t see that privilege lit up in

the brilliance of that white light,

but when squinting stops working

what else can you do but look away.

They, are not flawless. It hurts to look at

for those of us who are.

 

and finally,

we had 2 strikes against us

before we even went up to bat.

the first was our own poverty;

the second was theirs.

they aren’t from a high enough class

to recognize the richness

manifested in our pigmentation.

Black Diamonds are rare enough as it is

without them being taken away on a regular basis.

We Know, that we are flawless.

when will they see it.

©All Rights Reserved

Something wrong with this poem?

Share

Replies are closed for this poem.

Your Poem's Voice

See what makes your poem unique — its voice, energy, themes, and the literary traditions it draws from.

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.

Log in to leave a comment.