I dare you 
To tell the truth. 
Don’t discredit the youth 
You spooked 
They spoiled your spoiler.
Can’t tell her no, no more 
you spoiled her. 
Momentum in moments like this 
Navigate my future. 
Then the pressure of depression 
Dopes me up. 
I get high off lows. 
I move slow
Heaven feels close. 
I reach for the clouds 
I grab the fattest one, 
Reminds me of the fattest ass
That was only mine sometime, 
And I eat it. 
It dissolves on my tongue 
Like cotton candy,
The pink one because I’m a girl. 
“Stop calling her a b****, bro,
You know her name.”
A ramshackle heart I have. 
I cleave to her 
I believe through her 
Absence
This tightness in my chest will only grow
Larger like my Afro
Every time I hear about a brother
Being shot at. 
Until my heart explodes 
And I implode 
And expose my insides to the world.
I’m talkin’ intestines, lungs, ribs, flesh,
Blood, stomach, uterus, my soul. 
We can’t handle 
The world in its true state, 
So we pretend like that wheezing 
Is the motor under the hood. 
We make up stories
About why Blacks and Latinos
The only ones that live in the hood,
“That’s just how it is.” 
What if I told you 
It ain’t have to be like that? 
Would you drop those groceries 
And start running toward the answers? 
Would you stop and listen
And take notes 
Even if it wasn’t for no grade ? 
Do you really want to know
What it is I need from you? 
Remember you told me
You would always be honest, 
So answer me right now! 
Do you love me? 
Do you love my black skin? 
Do you think of me 
When you make those big decisions? 
How about this one, 
Do you see me in your future?