Why is it that a school could feel like prison

an institution where there's no one to listen

We are denied of expression

if it's not a calculus lesson

Where the funding goes elsewhere

and art is left without care

I tell you, my brothers and sisters

we are not much unlike blisters

trying to heal but we're again cut open

needing a violin, a canvas or an ink pen

left to wonder what's wrong 

why we're sinking, not following along

Is it too much to consider 

that creating a sculpture from litter

or giving a performance that gets a crowd weeping 

is a talent that should be nurtured for safe keeping?

That maybe being an artist doesn't make us dimmer?

Maybe we're just dissimilar

Yet we're made to shame our creativity

and made a slave to proclivity

for the education system

to lessen our fire and wisdom

Being told what career we are to desire

At the whims of ten year with no plans to retire

In school we learn that only some people can

as we watch education kill the renaissance man

where passions are encouraged to be passtimes

& unrequited feelings are turned into equations not rhymes

As music & literature are made out to be considered distractions

While those speaking up are given consequences for their actions

So this is an ode and a farewell to the fine arts

for it seems politicians don't have you in their hearts

unlike the balance in a chemical reaction

unlike a basic fraction

the budget for subjects are split into unequal parts

so you do the math for the arts