if only i had a pencil,

i could write my way out of the ghetto.

if only i had a pencil,

i could explain the voices in my head that scream in falsetto.

 

if only i had a pencil,

angry black kids in the hood wouldn’t have to come face to face with a militarized tank.

if only i had a pencil,

i would explain these hunger pains of these angry black kids to the bank.

 

if only i had a pencil,

i would tell the president; if he’d listen; how my people are being treated.

if only i had a pencil,

give hope to people it’s much needed.

 

if only she had a pencil,

as she was sitting on the ledge she could’ve wrote her family goodbye.

if only she had a pencil,

maybe she could find a better way to escape instead of getting high.

 

if only she had a pencil,

she could tell people about the man that raped her.

if only she had a pencil,

she could explain how that trauma changed her.

 

if only he had a pencil,

he could tell his teachers why he goes to sleep in class.

if only he had a pencil,

he could release the anger he has built up from things that hurt him in the past.

 

if only he had a pencil,

he could write a new narrative.

if only he had a pencil,

he could write a story of how playing sports and entertaining the white man isn’t lucrative.

 

i wrote this with a pencil. 

not one i was given but one i took.

i wrote this with a pencil.

this ole lightskin bitch will have massa all shook.

 

i wrote this with a pencil,

to explain the resources that are being withheld.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because a little white boy told my black brother go to hell.

 

i wrote this with a pencil,

because someone else can’t write their story.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because legality doesn’t determine morality. 

 

i wrote this with a pencil,

 because i simply can’t talk anymore.

i wrote this with a pencil,

because with all these gun shots and bullet wounds it feels like we’re at war.

 

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other child has to get hit by patrol cars.

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other kid would be held at gun point by cops over a “false alarm.”

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other kid has to lose their father because he was shot down in grandmas back yard.

i wrote this with a pencil,

so no other kid has to watch their father reach out for help just to end up dead, leaving the whole family scarred.

 

i wrote this with a pencil i took by force.

i wrote this with a pencil yet i feel no remorse.

i wrote this with a pencil because it needs to be said.

i wrote this with a pencil so no black or brown child... has to spend another moment with a cops gun to their head.