Manual High Student Poems: Who am I?

by Isabelle and Munira

Who am I? Like you’d really care to know!
My voice is unheard,
I’m invisible to you.
I am another point of view.
I stand tall on my own two feet.
Despite what you say
You try to tear me down
But still, like dust, I rise.

Who am I?
I am the young colored girl growing up in a world that doesn’t understand me,
growing up getting teased for my skin color.
I was different from everyone else.
They wanted to see me broken.
They wanted to see me fail.
Still I’ll rise.

I am the shy girl who has so much to show the world.
But doesn’t know how to put it into words.
I am the young girl, afraid and insecure.
Afraid of facing a world that was created for me to fail.

A world set up to send black men straight to jail.
A world who when I can’t read in second grade
But instead of buying a book
Pre-orders a prison bed

Hanging in the balance of the choices I make
they’re just watching me,
Waiting for me to make a mistake.

Who am I?
I am a “baby mama”
I am “is that your real hair?”
I am “Do you want some fried chicken?”
I am a colored girl living
in the ghetto and wishing for
hoping for
dream of
something more.
Still I’ll rise.

Who is she?
No matter what she does, she’ll never be
Good enough.
Not good enough for America
only because they’re afraid of what she is capable of.
They fear her so they constantly degrade her.
But still, like air, she’ll rise.

Is it a crime that I want to be evaluated for my mind?
But you don’t want to give me the time.
You see me and look the other way.
Because of my race
You see me as a disgrace
You see BLACK
You see hate
You see fear

Who am I?
Look closer
Into the day break that is wondrously clear
Look closer
See the gifts my ancestors gave me
For
I am the dream and the hope of the slave
I rise
I rise
I rise

Students from Manual High School in Denver visited KGNU recently to record some of their poetry. In their 10th grade American Literature class, the students have been writing, discussing, and reading about “The American Dream”. They’ve been inspired to write their own poetry on this theme. KGNU will be featuring these poems throughout January.