Show me your warranted outrage
Show me your unjust acts
Marking history with hues of shame
Coloring your very existence

Show me your broken parts
Show me places in you
That have ached for centuries

Show me your women that hold up the sky
Every breath filled with
Hope for a tomorrow that is able to be hopeful
But knowing that any moment
Their only joy can be ripped from their hearts
Breathing that hopeful sad prayer that's been handed down for generations
To daughters in dishes
That neither nurish nor please the palate

Show me your countless legacies of pain
Trying to live the best life regardless
Still striving to shine
Despite this grayish tinge of disdain

Show me your young men
Mob deep in despair
Flailing in probated darkness
Anger deeper than untraversed ocean
For losses untold but still felt

Show me systems designed
To align your neck with ground
And yet you survive

Show me something
Anything that can earn my sympathy
And garner my respect
I dare you

Some found it suspicious
How it lay there
Unflinching
Untouched
Unloved
They disregarded it
In its entirety
The sum of parts
Leaving something
Lacking
Undesired


Others decided
Parts could be useful
Found ways to
Entertain
Through thinly veiled
Expressions of disdain
All while uttering
Sentiments of contempt
Barely
Contained


Then there's those
Who's mouths watered at
First glance
Only seeing prey
******* air through
Dripping lips and
Sharpened teeth
Hungering for something
Full-bodied and
Forbidden
Giddy with delight
To find something
So...
Delectable


They
Never knowing
And
Never caring
How
Fear coated the inside
Leaving it
Thick with
Layers upon layers of
This dark murky gray
Feeling that
Something was
Terribly
Wrong


It's taking years for
It to come clean
It's taken so much to
Come to terms with
Mirrors being
Better friends
That reflections
Are not
Projections forced
Upon
Me


I am bigger than
This body
I have felt
My soul
Stretched across the sky
Spread like eagle wings
With the ancestors whispering
Universal sweet nothings
Only to me
Reminding me
Not to be drowned
By these
Petty
Sorrows


Said
Suffer no fools
Who refuse
To value
Your
Truth
And I heard
Oh and I heed
The sentiments of
The voices
The timber in which they
Relied
Exaltations
Joy and pride
Making me know
I am
Never again
Meant to
Hide
This body with
All this glory
Was made to
Shine

Dear New York,

Can we talk about the elphants on the sidewalks?

I know we currently live in a circus- like reality, but this is ridiculous.
There are so many wanting to be a part of the biggest show on earth.
But instead of millions of top billed performers,
We are heavy on magician acts
Most of us performing the same tricks
Week after week
Trying to make shoe strings turn into boot straps...
That sometimes turn into tightropes...
Our safety nets not quite up to code
So when we fall out of the spotlight,
Some of us fall through holes
Abandoned disillusioned dreamers
Subjected to the whims of clowns
But we have to keep trying, right?
Keep striving, keep reaching for the trapeze bar
Waiting for the perfect timing to gracefully glide to the top of the big top
Everyday hustling for some ovation
But along the way though the everyday
Before we can even make it to our marks
We gotta try to not feel the despair of
At least a dozen others that were unable to
Grasp that up swing
Those waiting on the sides aimlessly
Waiting
For what I wonder
As I try to not see
Anything but the dignity of
Fallen stars