Quiet your chest
You hear that beat?
Risen higher not for myself
Me, I'm still tapping
A sound of voices to be heard--
Not silenced
Deafened ears to deliver a proposal

Success should stand alone, suggests
Men like me were given the world

Dreams are grown to fill empty spaces
Not koffers stuffed with expectations
Swapping lanes with no pedigree
Standing face to face
Both sets of shoes strapped to the streets

I plead only to be named
Before I drown in false decree
For what society sells
That I should stomach, or
Gain a swollen head and
Shrinking stomach

Shaking hands force I'll upon me
The world held steadfast with labels
They cry out for fixing
Core still, nor crust budging
I fix my mouth
With furled brow

Or I shall suffer for sins
Of fathers before me, no.
Shame success and dash
Madly for a swifter ending
To set finale, a silent resolution

Will it my memory stain;
Have my words mean something, then
I must stifle sounds and symptoms
Suggestions of suffering
Lest they betray, and

Allow the pages to burn
Away at this facade
Toe to toe my lines
To their words will claim me

Accosted by the inflicted
Afforded no frustration
Check the box, X
A default male Caucasian
Filling the need for false standard
--Lost still among a victim generation.