You say we free
Then why you stuck in one area
Can’t go outside your boundaries ’cause
Brothas wanna bury you
For reasons uncertain
Young brothas dyin’ so rapidly now
It’s like damn we lost him too
And you say we free
Talkin’ about you got freedom of speech
Stayin’ in one part of town can’t expand
Your brain, the sky
Impossible to reach
That hopeless feelin’, thinkin’ the only thing you can
Do right is sleep
And you say we free
Trapped in a concrete jungle
Where everybody wants to be a lion
Feelin’ there’s no sense in climbin’
To the top because brothas on the streets
Are like crabs in a bucket
Always pulling you down
And you say we free
Then why we cheat our brains
It’s hard to be creative with the cells that remain
Minds trapped in chains inside a cage
Screamin’ for freedom
But blunt smoke and alcohol are the only things
You feed ’em
(Talkin’ ’bout food for thought)
And you say we free
Livin’ on the edge waitin’ to get pushed
Black on black crime is reachin’ an all-time high
In the record books
It’s hard to focus on the path ahead
When you always have to give your shoulder an overload
And you say we free
Lack of self-motivation keepin’ brothas
In altercation lack of destination
Leads to no demonstration
For our youth so they think entertainment
Is the only thing you can do
And if we free
Why we livin’ with no sense of reality
Young brothas dyin’ fast ’cause they want
Respect like your majesty
And you say we free
But in all actuality we still
Livin’ in slavery minus the visual chains
Now society holds us captive with
Visuals to the brain it’s a shame
How jingles make people go insane
Dismantle their frame
And you tellin’ me we free
Most people speak love but don’t
Live love and love for each
Other will take the shackles off
Our feet
Now ask yourself
Are you
Free?

– Eric Foster

This poem is featured in the exhibition This Place Called Poetry.

Where you from?
What’s that set you claim?
You gon rep it until the death?
Or til the gunshots rang?
You gon love it even after you right hand get slain?
Yeah it’s fire in yo eyes but do you still feel pain?
You gon try a legal hustle or you gon jus sell Kane?
Boo you got knowledge past yo years
Why you don’t use yo brain?
I guess you think cuz I’m a woman I ain’t laced wit game?
You at an awkward disposition while you on the corner pitchin
But baby boy is you 4 getting that yo gurl home alone wishin?
And you fate is in the distance servin a long prison sentence
Because yo palms won’t stop itchin you gon be lyin in a ditch
&
If you wonder how I know call it
Woman’s intuition

– Sharel Miller

From Poetic Justice, a WritersCorps publication at Ida B. Wells High School, and the anthology “Tell the World”

Poem of the Month: March 2008

I came out of this rounded earth that I made.
I put those glowing things in the sky at night.
My breath is the wind that makes you cold.
When I cry I give you rain.
Thunder comes from my anger.

I can climb to the sky
to make fluffy pillows
tell the sun to shine on you.
I can come back down
without salty water dripping from my skin.

I have diamond trees
in my backyard.
I gave my mother
the gift of Venus
the planet I named after her.

I can burn you
like an ant under a magnifying glass
the hot sun searing it.
I can catch a star
like the fisherman tosses his pole into the sea.
I fold this earth
like a mother folds laundry.

– Tina Ho, 17

From a WritersCorps publication at Ida B. Wells High School
Poem of the Month: September 2007