Poetry SLAM

A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work (or, more rarely, that of others). These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.

This week, Lauren's creative writing class held a poetry slam. The piece that she wrote and performed for her class made her teacher actually stand up, clap and "whoot! whoot!" And he doesn't do that often.

When Lauren practiced her piece for Danny and I, we were blown away. I think it will knock your socks off too. Of course, its much more powerful when she performs it, but here it is.

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Beautiful
by Lauren Bullock

I am the most beautiful child
you’ve ever seen
I am the ruin
of the racist regime
I carry
Martin Luther King Jr’s
Dream in the very
seams of my being
And I am the slave and the
slave master
Cracking the whip
to make my black back move faster
I am white supremacy
mixed with black Asian tea and disaster
One lump and two lumps
stirred like cake batter
You feel me, sugar?
I am the mad hatter
taking command from here on after
I am sweet caramel skin
Someone’s laughter called “sin”
I am the difference between now and then
Ask me my ethnicity
my race
my “origin”
My brothers and sisters
Are also my children
Built from the same blocks
A new generation
generating light
If you’ll let us in
I am the writing on the wall
inscribed in black ink
in an ancient Asian scrawl
I am the future of us all
unspoken
Upcoming ground
as yet to be broken
I?
I am a yellow rose
with a mulatto tune
Sweet honeycomb
dipped in the autumn moon
And soon
Yes, soon you will see
this prophecy
Star-spangled with hope
love
and destiny
Released from race
to set your offspring free
no longer mired in the mire of misery
Because we
We together
and only we
My children
My brothers and sisters and me
We together
are the most beautiful child
you’ve
ever
seen