In my world gunshots ring throughout the block,
Police cars on every corner, lights brightening up the night,
Caution tapes blocking houses,
Stores, and streets,
White tape outlines the shapes of bodies,
A mother cries out her sorrows,
A father bellows out his pain,
A sister weeps for the love she’ll never see again,
A brother punches a wall to relieve his anger,
But at the end of the day those memories will be locked away forever.
In my world there’s a saying,
“What goes on in this house,
Stays in this house.”
Every family knows this,
They treat it like some solemn oath.
I guess this saying is why I’m so remote.
You see in these ten words,
These thirty-six letters,
There lies a deep power,
A power so deep that it pushes its demands upon us,
Like the sacred oath of Omertà,
To speak is to become a traitor,
To become a traitor is to become a dead rat.
So to save face it’s best to play it safe,
And just keep the pact.
In my world a college education is rare,
Most have kids right out of high school,
They give up, they just don’t care.
Kids run away crying ‘abuse,’
That is until they leave home,
Only to go and live out there,
They become addicts,
Pimps, or worse, prostitutes.
My world is unpredictable,
And you never know what’ll happen,
Although my world is where the place
My story began,
I will preserve, fight, strive, and survive.
I’m going to do what I always do.
I’m going to refuse,
Refuse to let this depressing world bring me down,
I refuse to sink into the genes of schizophrenia,
I refuse to drown in the sea of lost dreams.
Instead I‘ll swim,
Swim across the waters of “Impossible,”
Running across this desert of obstacles.
I’m going to reach for the destiny that awaits me in the oasis,
I’m going to search for the hope that lies in this sweet paradise.
I’m going to grasp that hope, and strive for success,
Because like Mary J. Blidge said,
“Only God knows where the story ends for me,
But I know where the story begins.
It’s up to us to choose,
Whether we win or lose
And I choose to win.”
Yes, in my world it’s harsh,
Yes, it’s cruel,
Yes, at times it’s unforgiving.
But John Legend said in his song “All of me,”
‘Even when I lose, I’m winning.’
That’s what I’m doing,
I’m winning.
I’ve ignited the flame of glory within me,
I left a lonely, cold, dark and questionable existence,
I’ve long said goodbye to the warmth of icy discontentment.
I’ve become a woman of class, and elegance.
I am now a woman who knows her worth,
I am a woman who knows her boundaries, her ticks, and likes.
I am the firstborn to go to college,
Where I shall further better myself,
And gain more knowledge.
I will complete the mission my family started long ago,
I will remain warm, even when this world turns cold.
