Youth Speaks

Mauricio – MS 145 – Grade 8

Piercing through your skin comes a blade carved with the words of wisdom from my generation
Hoping that the more blood it meets the more this nation will comprehend what we proposed of this poetry sensation.
Hoping that the harder we stand the quicker these lines spoken by our youth will get their attention
But you see this blade does not slice your tissue and meaty desires to scratch your sole and open your heart
Coming at you with our similes and metaphors so sharp and dulled like the already blood stained darts
You see our country, our media our own families are wearing a POET PROOF VEST
When we speak our emotion and show our passions and spit our rhymes none of our figurative language none of our lines none of our passions and emotions get through but this can’t be true!
Cause my generation is seriously lost or is it just that we haven’t been found?
ARE OUR WORDS THAT MEANINGLESS?
No this can’t be because as I keep on talking the more those opposing thoughts mean less
I’ve seen the Apollo theatre sold out just to see a bunch of kids saying a bunch of stuff
I wish that there was a crime committed while we were there so that maybe we would have been on the news!
Actually there was a crime because those poems that were spoken assassinated me
Those lines ignited flames in my body and it fascinated me that a bunch of stuff that was said was so impacting, so shocking that I felt as if I was being punched by the world heavyweight champion in boxing
But his fist was clenched in my stomach launched in his knuckles tapped in my bloodstream warning my heart with an uppercut
But I loved the way some lines just stabbed you in the back and others slap you from facial expression to facial expression and some were just sent like messages from above
But I am pissed off because the media couldn’t show them any love; instead they record our lives as the blinded ones
THE MISDIRECTED ONES
THE EDUCATION GIVEN NOT EDUCATED ONES
How they report only on violence
For once I would like to see a poet perform for more than a few seconds on the news
Not used for their reputation so that mom and dad don’t look at it as just a 5 second clip of what their son of daughter likes to do
So, no mommy this is not just a hobby
There’ a punch in my body and I am actually happy because my emotions are converted into liquid for they are finally leaking out so!
No dad, I know I’m not going to get paid off for what I say but every time I notice a grin in my audience they just make my day!
Because the response from the listeners means they are actually listening and that means something
So I’m tired of hearing that my generation has no ambition
If you can’t see our talent than just listen, listen, listen
Don’t ever tell me you think we are full of misdirection because unless you’ve seen us do our thing for 8 periods a day, five days a week, 4 weeks a month, 10 months a year for 2 ½ years you cant tell me you’ve seen 3000 hours of our work and still think we are racing on the wrong track
Listen to the rhyme and down beat tap behind them
Listen to the similes and metaphors and not so much blood stained darts but feathers of purity lending in our youth
Read the poem being written by my fellow writers
Hear the songs being sang by my fellow singers
Observe the page being performed by my fellow actors
Listen to the speeches being spoken by my fellow speakers
Look at the poetry being painted by my fellow painters
Through our art we unlock each other’s rib cages
To release the messages that we have incased for you
We are all artists!
And even though we like money we would rather be paid closer attention to