Poems

By RD

People say I don’t care about anything but myself
But tell me, if you’ve been caged in like an animal,
How long would you stay yourself?

Me, I am still the same
I’ve just adjusted to my circumstances
I can’t be distracted, I can’t be distressed
I can’t take any chances (more…)

By RW

Do you remember
Falling in love?
Do you remember
When we first hugged?
Do you remember
When we first kissed?
Do you remember
When we first missed?
Do you remember
When you told me you cared?
Do you remember
When you told me you would always be here?

Remember when I told you
I’m playing for keeps
Remember when I told you
The love we share is deeper than the sea
I remember you told me
That you would never leave without saying goodbye
Looking at you from a distance
Makes me want to cry
Do you remember the letter you wrote me
And made these promises back in December…
Surely, I remember!

By JP

If common sense is the opiate of the masses
Then I’m the man of a thousand masks
Don’t try to figure out my character
Because it has chameleon characteristics
It changes with its surroundings,
The people who I may encounter
It is most times my defense mechanism
To keep others at bay
To throw you off
My smile is one of my masks
(more…)

By SG

The mask I wear is to protect my identity
When I don’t want you to know the real me
The mask I wear is to mask my emotions
To never give you the image of me looking vulnerable
The mask I wear is to always smile
Giving you the impression that everything in life is green
When my current state of mind is blue
The mask I wear

By RW

I remember a house full of kids
A heart full of fear
And eyes full of tears

I remember a pocket full of dead presidents
Mom don’t have to worry about the rent
My father is incarcerated
So it was the money order I sent

(more…)

By BM

When I wake up in this place
I wonder what you do when you wake up at home
I figure you wake up thinking about me
And count down the days until I come home

(more…)

By CE

I promised many things
But never kept up with the promises
From females
To my mother
To friends

(more…)

By DS

I made a promise to my mother
That I was never going to get locked up again
When I came home in December of 2012

But I made a mistake
Because my mind wasn’t right
And I ended up back in jail facing 30 years
Now, I’m just hoping that she would forgive me
And still be there for me

By EW
This is how I feel, so I put it on a piece of paper.

Just ‘cause I am black and have dreads
And have on a Helly and a ski mask on my head
Don’t mean I have a gun
Don’t mean I like to rob
Don’t mean I am selling drugs
Don’t mean I carjack
Don’t mean I am a bad person
So you don’t have to hop out the car
With your gunz drawn at me
Or press me out like I have something
Or did something
Or blame me for something I didn’t do
It’s a person that been locked up for 20 years
And he didn’t do nothing
Just cause I stay in the hood
Don’t mean I am going to clown
It don’t mean I am going to act a fool
Just because I am with my friends
Don’t mean we about to do something
And just because a paper say that I am a menace
Don’t mean I am!
Because I am not
So don’t try to take my life away
Some of us don’t know what all them years mean
And some people don’t have anything
Not just black people
Some don’t have their family to support them
And if they do, they don’t have nothing
So they go out and get money ‘cause they need to
That don’t mean that they like doing the stuff that they do
Some people been doing it for a long time
So used to it ‘cause all the jobs gone
So they can’t get one
So why you scared of me and other people like me?
People make mistakes
That’s a part of life
I am not racist, but I feel some kind of way
Because if a white man or woman do something to us
And we do something about it
Or we walking through the suburbs to go to the store
Or just seeing a family member or something
The police blitz us like we doin’ something
But we not
Is it because we black?
Yeah, but some white people is not like that
Some want to help us
Some don’t
I respect the ones who do
But I don’t judge nobody
But everybody have feelings
So don’t take our freedom
Our people have to fight and fight for it
So give chances not time
Some of us need it
But at the end of the day
God/Allah made us
So act like it!

By EW

I sit back and watch people who is happy
And I try to be
But deep inside, the pain is all around me
The people I know that know me best as me
Am I okay?
Or they know what’s up with me
Sometimes my sadness is anger, depression, hopelessness,
Revenge and downheartedness
But I don’t show it except when I am mad
I lost my dad when I was 11 years old
I lost my right-hand man when I was 15
I lost my aunt when I was 16
These years my mother was my provider
Until she couldn’t provide for me
So I had to go get it myself
So that made it even harder for me
‘Cause I got to watch over my head every 10 seconds
And all my friends had more stuff than me and looked good for school
All the parties, they asked me did I want to go
But I didn’t have nothing nice to wear
Their mothers bought them games like PS2 and Xbox2
And I still had a PS1
I always had to wait until after Christmas when everything gets cheap
So my mother can get if for me
She lost her job and had to pay for it off the first of the month check
So I started getting money myself
And when my brother had money
He didn’t give me nothing
Or my sisters—only some of them
They had lots of clothes and I had a few
So I was mad that I had to go and get it with my friends
That was going through the same thing
Then I started to get in fights and I started to get locked up
Now I am 17 and in DC Jail
But my sadness and depression is still there
But now I know if I hide it
Later on in life I am going to go crazy
And if I show it
People will get to me even if I don’t let them
So it’s in the shadows
Until I need to show them

By MB

Life is a struggle
The struggle is life
You should live like you never live twice
Enjoying the pleasures; the pain it’s the game
It makes you who you are; no two humans are the same
Learning your weakness, modifying your flaws
Sooner or later, you could be someone else’s boss
No, I ain’t here to preach, I’m just laying some laws
Know who you are and you’ll stand up much more tall

By CM

Constantly thinking about your love
Has my heart tied up in a knot
Because besides my family
Girl, you’re all that I got

Constantly thinking about your smile
And all the beauty in your blush
And all the love we made
After we’d argue and fuss

Constantly thinking about your style
And what makes you so unique
Constantly thinking about how being with you
Makes me feel complete

Constantly thinking about all the things
That I know were meant to be
And the most important of them all
Is the thought of you and me