Poetry Submission: "AFFECTED!"
To Dream Like Martin Luther King Jr.
To Believe Like Thurgood Marshall
To Sit-down Like Rosa Parks
To Kneel Like Collin Kaepernick
To Have Strength Like Malcom X
To Have Vision Like Harriet Tubman
To Be Determined Like Fredrick Douglas
To Pioneer Like W.E.B. DuBois
To Be Influential Marcus Garvey
To Be A Leader Like Former President Barack Obama
To Be Revolutionary Like Huey Newton
It Will All Seem Impossible Until It’s Done!
* Nelson Mandela
We Are All Governed By The Misconceptions of Religion,
But WE are all UNFOCUSED…because our FOCUS is on A PENSION!
WE are taught – money – is EVERYTHING, but FEAR REJECTION!
Life seems like a game until you’re missing:
AFFECTION, PROTECTION, AND “YOUR” POSSESIONS!
WE DREAM like Martin. WE have a VISION like Harriet. WE BELEIVE like Thurgood. WE are DETERMINED like Fredrick. WE are INFLUENTIAL like Marcus. WE Have STRENGTH like Malcom. WE are LEADERS like Barack. WE are REVOLUTIONARY like Huey.
Yet, REALITY ABRUPTLY SHIFTS AND GAMES, ARE NO LONGER “YOUR” PROGRESSIONS!
Time has swiftly passed: Benefits, Adventures, 401K, and Family plans
Should have been OUR PROJECTIONS!
Now a life of a bum,
That is soon to come,
Is not what OUR LEADERS would have ACCEPTED!
NOR PAIN NOR REGRET because WE are ALL AFFECTED!These are my CONFESSIONS:
It is NEVER too late to change DIRECTIONS!
Have FAITH, stay WOKE, and believe in something.
Please! Please! For “OUR” PROECTION!
Our lives are BIGGER THAN US, It Times WE TEACH the YOUTH this!
WE decide our own path, WE decide our own faith. So, the question is…What path will YOU take? BEFORE you answer this question at too quick of a pace,
SIT-DOWN like Rosa and KNEEL like Kaepernick.
Because it’s about time WE PIONEER like W.E.B.
WE have ONE life to make “OUR” mark, have we all adjusted?
“It Will all seem IMPOSSIBLE until IT’S DONE!”
But recall one thing, before it’s all said and done,
WE ARE ALL AFFECTED!
About the poem
“AFFECTED!” comes from a place of childlike awe. It was National Read Aloud Day at Glenn Hill High School and my fraternity brothers and I were volunteering. I was introducing myself and a young man by the name of “Cotton” said that my name and demeanor reminded him of Martin Luther King, Jr. I was rendered speechless because not only are myself and Dr. King apart of the same prestigious fraternity, but he is also someone that I look up to. It was in this moment that I was thrust back into my childhood mind, thinking back on who I once looked up to. Now I’m who they will look to for guidance. I was inspired again to do more and be better. I owe it to myself and to them to do nothing less.
Editor’s Note: This piece is submitted content, meaning it was not written by a member of Pacer Times and does not necessarily align with the feelings and beliefs of the staff or organization.
