Hello
Nice to meet you
Your hand feels cold in mine as I shake it.
Your eyes telling me that you’re surprised of how early I have arrived to speak with you.
Wrinkles all crinkled around your sharp face.
I can barely see the freckles, that were once speckled across your cheeks
Created when you used to spend all your summer weeks soaking up the sun
like I do now.
My name is the youth.
The future
The change
The one’s that will be taking your seat,
even though you’ve clearly made yourself
very comfortable.
In Your throne of power. Your chair of leadership.
the gold painted armrests,
now a little rusted
The paint flaking from your trembling grip,
trying to hold on with the tips of your fingers
making sure you don’t fall off
Just like the generation before your own,
But it’s bound to happen
You see, I didn’t want to take
your thrown of power
Your chair of leadership
But my voice is being ignored
Those big ears of yours that you claim you have, seem to be shut
Only able to let in what you want to hear.
Oblivious to what the world is trying to tell you
What I am trying to tell you
I am damn sure you cannot listen to the words of the future
When you are dwelling in the past
stuck there
While I am here
Here in the present, counting down the minutes until the future greets us
Here
Right in front of your face
because you told me you didn’t know how to work skype
You are reaching an age and like an old dog,
You showed me that you can’t learn any new tricks.
You say
“you don’t know anything, you don’t understand me, nor my choices”
Really?
My educated eyes have read more books about you then I can count with my fingers and toes
and eyelashes
and freckles.
You’re past your prime
It’s now my time
You need to let go
Just like the generation before your own
did for you
This world is spinning round and round
Faster and faster everyday
your hands just aren’t big enough to hold it inside your palms anymore
to protect it from everything you fear will hurt it
things like me
As hard as you may try
As loud as you may cry
I will find a way
To make change
To evolve
To be heard
Now don’t you turn away from me and cover your ears
Like the past generations have done to you
you clench your jaw and shake your head in disbelief
just as expected
because From my textbooks
apparently now is my cue to give up
Let you win
Let you stay and nuzzle deeper into your warm seat
and lock the doors behind me as I leave
But guess what
I picked that lock once
and I can do it again
my voice is getting louder
louder than yours has ever been
Echoing in the winds
Bouncing off the mountains
Reaching
every
last
eardrum
you may try to push me away
try to stop me
blame my “ignorance” on my use of my phone
you say
“your fingers should stop tapping the screens”
when they are only linking me to others
letting me connect with not only Wi-Fi, but with
likeminded youth
our minds, our thoughts all stand against yours
But then again
You do have other tricks shoved up both sleeves
Probably learned from past generations, I’m guessing
your cold hands may try to glue my mouth closed
muffling my words
Trapping
Choking
suffocating my ideas
But have you seen who stands behind me?
I represent the 1.8 billion young’ins that want change.
That want it now
Try silencing them
But then again
we have said more in 6 minutes and 20 seconds of silence
Than all your years of fighting violence with violence
“Fist with fist”
“Pistol with pistol”
Brother against brother
But I guess, we believe in fighting too
Our eyes glow as we march down the streets
But rather than with fists against fists
It’s our Hands intertwined with hands
You say
“your minds have no idea what your mouths are screaming”
“Of course my ears are shut to uneducated 16 year olds”
but when Your world starts to crumble under your feet.
my new throne will be sprouting out of the concrete
that you laid over the once lush grass
it will be entangled with beautiful emerald green vines
White roses blooming from the armrests
There will be Enough room for everyone’s knowledge, beliefs and voices
Unlike you, we will listen
Unlike yours, our hands will be warm
Welcoming any handshakes brave enough to open our doors
Our time will come
Just as yours comes to it’s end
Because We are sick of sitting in silence
Sick of letting others choose our future
Our lives.
Sick of watching others just like us
Painted with different colored skins, suffer
Sick of being demeaned, dehumanized
And Let me just remind you
Who will be the ones here in 30, 20, 10 years
Oh yeah, that’s right
Not you
We are sick of holding umbrellas under storms that could be prevented
Sick of being declared mute as soon as we can speak loud enough to be heard
Sick of being told what to do
And Who to be
pause
Your Time is up
Please Leave the door open behind you.
Reflection:
I really liked how I used different tones of my voice to express my feelings during my presentation. I also liked how I used a lot of imagery and metaphors in the poem, making it more pleasing to the ear. I could improve on memorization and also more facial expressions that reflect what I am saying.