Now that they're more threatened by the cries of the youth, they will do everything to dismiss your voices, discredit your efforts, belittle your advocacies.

Do not forget what we've started. Go back to the communities and continue the service as we should. Go back to the streets and keep the fight, if we must.

They will mock everything you do as if it is not for the country. They will laugh at you for being educated, woke, angry, and liberated, as if it is wrong to demand for a future that is ours.

God forbid that unwanted things happen, but do not be afraid to shed. Shed light to those who live in the shadows as the enemy's weapons are ignorance, fear, and dissonance. Shed tears for the injustices, for the abuse, for the abused. Shed blood for our freedom, if we must.

They will doubt you until they make you doubt yourselves. They will tag you red, the history they will try to bend.

But do not be bent.

No matter how many pages they burn, your heart will burn brighter because you are the book being written. You are the history as you uphold history, justice, and freedom.

There is no future if there is no history and there is no future without you. You are the clamors in the streets, you are the bars that will imprison the greedy, you are the stories before the ink writes history.

Grant me witnessing all ‘round I go
Let me be uncomfortable
In my sadness
In my spite
In my veins our ancestors’ strife
Their oppression chiseled in depths
Of my subconscious—mayn’t I forget
In my every privileged sigh
In every nightmare’s death
And all of my trivial achievement
That their blood inks this gazette
That my soul echoes their last breath  
For justice—mayn’t I
Move idly and yield
To transient relief
To false gods
To defeatism
That my heart numbs
To the cries of my people
To the destruction of our homes
To the monarchy of traitors
Let me hear it everywhere I go
Let me be uncomfortable

The rain dances across
the windows

Hair in face,
unknowing what will
happen

As you look out,
the window
fogs up

Hold your breath

I remember where
you sat

When I awoke
I was walking in a field
holding only a piece of
paper

On it, it said,
“Will you miss me?”

7-21-19

Do this
Do that
Never for me
Always for you
Always putting me down
You too dark
Too fat
Too short
This that
Words often said
Complaint
Grumble
Annoyance
Anger
That’s all I get
But today I rise
Never again
I promise myself
Never again
I have become more
Each day I become
Never again