Mankind

Mankind
One small step for man one giant leap for man kind
they had stepped on the moon
But see I am not not one of the so I will not say we
mankind. is not humanity.
cause last time I checked does not and will not EVER include me.

Mankind created the wheel and discovered fire
woman created man
On the list of great inventions that ones never mentioned
said women was made from the rib of man
but what came first the chicken or the hen

Mankind
I would love to thank my forefathers
but they wouldn't have given me choice
cause they didn’t believe in my body vote or voice

Mankind
I would like to thank my foremothers
but I don’t know who they are
see they left them out of my history books
as if they hadn’t come as far
fighting silent war against mankind
that was far less than kind to them.
There breast kept them intellectual prisoner
thoughts were as shameful as a uterus

Mankind
created the car, the house, and th the glass ceiling.
Mankind
continues define my life in playboy magazine and dishwashing commercials
Mankind
who repeatedly tells me I should be seen and not heard

Mankind
Who mad it legal for a pharmacy
deny a female plan B
a condom costs 2 dollars when
female choices are 50
our choice isn’t part of the plan
prevention through contraception is up to a man


It’s time to fight the man.
The man we call government.

The same mankind that tells us our bodies are a product of democracy
and what what we choose to do with them is up for discrepancy
as if our we are property
property old men can vote on.’

Man kind you may be our government but I’m my bodies president and don’t forget it.



Among man kind have sat in the white house
there are few who I admire
first lady for years but never for hire


A woman would be too sensitive, I’ve even heard PMS,

America likes to pretend
that my ovaries make us more vulnerable than
men

Organs that produced them, somehow reduce us.

We ignore what we’ve seen time and again
It goes both ways this so called weakness
ask mr. clinton, then ask his penis


I have met good men, they do exist
that not what it meant by this
but I’m tired of testosterone defining my life
I demand man and woman
don’t define me wife.

I will never be a police man a fire man or even a mail man so please
don’t tell me I can

I am what I am, so please include me.

It’s not mankind it’s humanity.

Don't ask, Don't tell

His parents told him
He could be anything when he grew up a firefighter a superhero
a doctor a lawyer a teacher, anything...
but that
anything but gay

They sent him to a Christian therapist
who called her self christ but never said judge not
She fed him pills of denial methods of shame in bottles labeled hate

She told him say “No” to gay
She said NO one will ask if you never tell
His diagnosis was gay
The diagnosis of a sinner
The prescription read deny temptation, deny feelings, deny self and pray

So he did.
Bent knee and clenched fingers he begged the god he swore was deaf to make him different
to make him different so he could be the same as everyone else.
Make him different so he could walk the straight path of salvation

As long as they labeled him gay
He labeled himself failure
So he healed himself marine

He was told don’t ask don’t tell and you’ll be in the right, even if it feels wrong
Not the first or last time, his government would reward a lie

He stashed his heart in his boot and hist tongue in the closet

But his weapons couldn’t protect him from his dreams
His helmet wouldn’t guard thoughts of rough hands on rough faces and gentle touches from strong arms
The sand of an Iraqi desert clouded his vision but not his memory
Heavy artillery wouldn’t drown out the sound of his soul

His uniform exclaimed solider
His uniform was a lie
He stitched stars stripes and a small black flag to the inside his jacket
Because he was a POW
A prisoner to an enemy who gazed back at him in the mirror
and a prisoner to the land of the free.
It was home and he stayed brave, as his neighbors condemned him


The truth is that he spent his life dying
Dying for his parents conditional love
Dying for a country who considered him half a man and less than a citizen
Dying for a country he loved despite the fact they denied his love
Dying for a military who defined his life in shiny grey duct tape
Dying because freedom wasn’t free which is something he knew all too well
Dying for a world who cared more about the shape of his lover then of his heart
He was dying to live

A 3 cornered flag lay in trembling hangs
The hands that once held a baby boy
The hands that pushed him away
Too late to say I love you.
Or time to say goodbye
To the son she never really knew

Red white and blue draped his coffin
but the church bells did not ring freedom
Because the civil war for civil rights was not over

The 14th amendment promised that all citizens would be equal under the law”
the 14th amendment lied
silent is not equal
separate is not equal
acceptance is not equality

A broken gay dead man lie in a smiling straight man’s grave.
Here lies lies.

Greatness

Greatness

I’ve been in the presence of greatness.
Not the Greatness I find in my college textbooks
my childhood fairy tales, or on the history channel
I’ve been in the presence of greatness on street corners,
at dinner tables, in supermarkets, and standing at the bus stops
The greatness we never stop to think about, or acknowledge
The greatness we leave out of our newscast,broadcast, and book reports
Real Greatness

My cousin was 19 when an infection no one had ever heard of
stole her leg 2 fingers and almost her life
but it did not steal her Joy.
They told her she may never walk again, she may not survive
She now stands .
Stands in front of hundreds of high school students a year
and talks about menigialcozeima and the most horrible moments of her life,
again and again with a smile on her face
in hopes that it may save one person.

I have Been in the presence of greatness
my little sister who can be so shy it hurts to speak
the same girl who does not hesitate to yell at the bully teasing the kid with the rolly backpack

I Have been in the presence of greatness
the teacher who taught me
why it’s important to care about someone
a thousand miles away who’s face looked nothing like my reflection.

I have been in the presence of greatness
the old lady who slipt me 50 cents last week
when I was short buying a cup of coffee

I have been in the presence of greatness
J.P came to my school from haiti in the 9th grade
the only english word she knew was hello
by my junior year she was getting better grades then me in advanced lit

I have been in the presence of greatness
After years of keeping it secret
the strongest woman I know was brave enough
to talk about the one thing that made her feel weak
because she knew it was the right thing to do
for her sisters her nieces her daughters and herself

I have been in the presence of greatness
a friends father who ran back into the towers to save one last person
but couldn't save himself

I have been in the presence of greatness
My grandmas who’s arthritis is so bad it makes tying her own shoes
difficult still manages to knit the stocking and christmas time

I have been in the presence of greatness
her mom was a hooker, her dad was in a gang
and they were both addicted to heroine
child abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and four foster homes later
She went to college on an academic scholarship

I have been in the presence of greatness
Not entertainment weekly, new york times branjolina greatness.
Real Greatness

It’s time to start recognizing the greatness that surrounds us
the greatness that belongs on the
nightly news, in barns and noble and in our hearts.


I have been in the presence of greatness
more greatness then can ever fit on a page, on a hundred pages in a single poem

Bliss

Bliss.

I’ve heard ignorance is bliss,
but I’m of the opinion
that it depends what side of ignorance you stand on

I’ve heard that ignorance is bliss...
Ignorance is oppression.
the reason for slavery, sexism,racism, and war
Is war bliss?

I’ve heard ignorance is bliss
Ignorance is weakness.
It allows Adolf hitlers, Joseph Koneys, and Kimjanils
to exist.

I’ve heard ignorance is bliss.
But, Ignorance is destruction.
it’s societal corruption.
it made the towers fall, the berlin wall, and global warming

Ignorance is stupidity.
it allows us to believe that .1% of DNA that determines race determines moral fiber.
Ignorance is fear.
the fear that built internment camps, religion wars, and the trail of tears.
Ignorance is confusion
lt allows us to believe that homo and hetero can’t both define marriage.
Ignorance is anger
the blood of baby faced boys on the pavement over different colored t-shirts?
Ignorance is a disconnect
a disconnect that allows us to believe that the genocide in Darfur is a Sudanese problem rather a human one and there for we should stay out of it.
Ignorance is conceit
we convince ourselves, that the animals, the planet, and our foreign neighbors feel less then we do
Ignorance is a choice.
we choose not to use our pens our action our voice.

Ignorence is disgraceful.

I’ve heard that ignorance is bliss,
maybe they meant laziness is bliss.

We say it’s not our problem.

The action of choosing in action was simply easier.

Easier to do, or should I say not to do
But is it easier to live with?

To know that somethings wrong and we did nothing to change it?
are we better then the murders we watch on tv?
Are we better then the oppressors, dictators humanity haters that we allow to progress?
Are we better then the kidnapper,war lord,villains we choose to ignore?
Or are we their weapon of choice?
Are we the shackles that bind the child soldiers?
Are voting no to gay marriage, just by keeping quite?
Are we the brothels that hold the girls barley old enough to ride a bike?
Are we the holes in the ozone layer?

See the action of in action, is the real ignorance.

If ignorance is bliss, I choose to remain bliss-less.

Keep Your Pants ON.

A Lubna Ahmed Al Hussein, a female journalist in Sudan, is being charged with wearing... pants, yes pants. She could have received a possible 40 lashes. 10 other women arrested the same day as her received lashes, and fines. At the time she was charged with the "CRIME?" she was working for the united nations. Because the U.N is a peace keeping force she would be exempt for the charges. Hussein decided that she would proceed, and be charged with the crime. The court decided (probably because of the massive coverage of the case) to revoke any charge of lashings and force her to pay a fine. She refused to pay the fine which would equal around $200 american dollars. She believes that the law is unjust, and is willing to serve whatever time in jail they sentence her to. Sudan follows strict sharia law, which would demand that women wear skirts. Such a a ridiculous law seems unimaginable. Sudanese government has had no problem ignoring the thousands of lives currently being lost in Darfur, but women wearing pants is an outrage! Sudan is clearly messed up. Despite what "sharia laws" say, women are entitled to choice. And as for Ms. Hussein. YOU GO GIRL.


Read More>http://abcnews.go.com/International/sudans-lubna-hussein-convicted-wearing-trousers/story?id=8508383

For the love of money

Lonely, but not empty was the life she lead
Never thought her heart only her head
Money was the medium in which she defined
The value of her thoughts and worth of her time

She focused her gaze on business towers
Never stopping to smell or notice the flowers
She trampled on and over all those who were
the ones who cared, loved, and made her

She was no longer the girl that they all knew
The question was now how much?
Not who.
Measuring success in money acquired
Selling her heart to the highest buyer

She adorned her self in ribbons and bows
With fancy shoes and designer clothes
She had all the best that money could buy
But still felt empty and didn’t know why

Every time she woke up feeling this way
She thought it would get better on pay day
Cause money was her life money was her love
More important than people or god above

To fill the emptiness that was her heart
She flooded her mansion with music and art
To fill the hole that was her soul
She inundated her purse with money rolls
To fill the spot where her friends once stood
She bought a Ferrari and hope it would


One day she woke up and felt unwell
She had no one to call, no one to tell
She lost all those who would have cared
Would any one notice if she wasn’t there?

Soon her heart beat heavy and slow
So she reached for the love she used to know
Hand met by the emptiness she created
All the things she once loved now hated

She gasped to take her final breath
Finding that her life was really her death
Knowing that love could have changed her fate
She closed her eyes, it was too late

Where the Daises Grew

Through the grass they would run
Sing in the wind, dance in the sun
Where the daises grew

They danced and tumbled
Till the sky rumbled
Where the daisies grew

Discovered and learned
and swore to return
To where the daisies grew

Each day like the other
They became brothers
Where the daisies grew

But, time did pass
And they changed fast
So did, where the daises grew

Young no more
Flowers lost there lore
Where the daises grew

They swore that they would someday see
Who they both had grow to be
Where the daises grew

Soon, Tanks rolled over their sacred place
Air thick with soot taste
Where the daises once grew

A little boy was now a man
Fire in heart and gun in hand
Where the daisies once grew

Prepared to conquer all those in his way
This, would be the judgement day
Where the daisies once grew

He pulled the trigger to spill the blood
The enemies body dropped to the mud
Where daises once grew

Now, His heart it would pound
When he saw the face lying on the ground
where the daisies once grew

A face he had seen
In a distance dream
Where the daisies once grew

This face he knew
For they were two
Where the daises once grew

Stepping back to take a breath
This killing would be his own death
Where the daises once grew

Beneath his boot lie a familiar sight
That he had missed through the fight
Where the daises once grew

It was a daisy once known so well
As his heart stopped his gun fell
The daises were not dead.