The True Chapters of Life

America the Beautiful?

America is blind to who we are versus who we think we are.

“With liberty and justice for all”… Unless you’re black.

We hide behind our idealistic belief that we are colored blind. And we prosper because of our denial.

“Land of the free”… Unless you’re black where prison is your freedom.

But we prosper because our knee is on the neck of the black person.

“God shed his grace on thee”… Unless you’re black.

Our white supremacy, hyper white masculinity inner slavery oppresses anything not white or male.

“Someone had to pick the cotton, someone had to plant the corn, someone had to slave and be able to sing, that’s why darkies were born.” (unofficial anthem of the Confederacy)

We still build our wealth on slavery and this still exists at all levels; justice, policing, jobs, healthcare, food, and safe communities for people of color.

“No refuge could save the hireling or the slave, from the terror of the fight or the gloom of the grave.” (Unsung stanza of national anthem)

Medgar, Malcolm, Martin…. We killed you and locked up all of your brothers.

“All men are created equal.” Unless you’re a slave.

We are our history and we whites pretend the world is only white. We’ve become monsters trying to expounge the negro from our souls.

“We are presumed innocent until proven guilty”… Unless you’re a black man.

And the black man suffers mightily at the hand of these injustices.

We can’t change the world with just ideas in our minds but convictions in our hearts.” Just Mercy

Note: For every 9 people on death row executed, 1 has been proven innocent and most are black. A shocking error rate of injustice.

Those That Love Us

We blame those who love us, for what we despise in ourselves,
hoping they can see through our confusion…

We despise those who love us, for loving that which we hate in ourselves
hoping they can bare the tests of our fears…

We loathe those who love us, because we don’t believe they really do or can love us
hoping they do, can and will, despite what we think of ourselves…

It’s hard to let people love us and easier if we can just control how they love us
except when we do let people in we discover their love gives us
hope in our ability to forgive ourselves for…

…to forgive ourselves for not being perfect

I Don’t want to be Chased. I want to be Fucking Claimed.

This is precisely what I asked for, and I fucking know it. 

The only thing I yearn for, more than to have my heart broken open, is to have my heart met. And for a few weeks, I felt seen and held in a way I have not in years. It reminded me that I want love

So much of the cat and mouse—come here and go away—games that we see in dating are, in my opinion, attempts to navigate our need for reassurance, validation, comfort, and intimacy. 

We are told that we should not put these needs on the opposite sex, that it makes us come off as needy and undesirable, when the truth is we all have these needs. To ignore them and suppress them makes us feel less human, and that makes us behave neurotically. 

We belong to each other, but there is no belonging without safety. To feel safe, we must feel cared for, protected, and cherished. These are not feelings that can be chased. They can only be shared and claimed. 

By Justice Bartlett

Poetry

“In our daily lives we experience enormous amounts of disorder and confusion.

And what poetry says to us is, ‘turn your confusion, turn your world into words. Take it outside yourself, into language.'”

Gregory Orr