image from: The Cabinet of Curiosities

A scream of a shout-out this time, once again, to Jose. I finally got around to reading some of his poetry on The Poetry Cafe and this one ripped a hole through me, enough to consider adding it to my short list of poems I insist kids read.

You too, read it.

I Think Therefore I Am…
By Jose Vilson

If there’s one thing
every leader agrees on
It’s that you are what you say you are
You become the person you think you are
I cried as a baby, so I stayed close to the womb
I crawled for food so I stayed under the parental umbrella
I followed the rules in school,
so I stayed subservient to my teachers
I said I wasn’t worth this life as a young one,
So the rest of my body almost followed suit with a successful dip by the
Williamsburg Bridge
I thought I couldn’t defend myself,
so I became roadkill for bullies, bullshitters, and racists
I thought I couldn’t face myself, so I became ugly
I told myself I wasn’t worth shit, so my skin started to reek
I thought I was too broke to hang with these preppies in my high school,
So I found my wallets empty often
I pinched my skin and thought it was thin,
so even people I thought were friends tried to get under it
Because I thought these friends were,
but they thought not to act on that thought
Hence, the thundering in my chest was
my heart beating from the bleeding in my back
from the knives slicing down my spine
And I said G_d existed,
but because I thought he was
separate
from me and what I was doing,
I found myself looking for him in hood heroes,
priests,
NBA superstars,
and everyone but the father I couldn’t will back into my life
My thoughts turned to a revolution
Delusions of grandeur turned to self-improvement
So the first thought I thought was
I
am
G_d
And instantly my own holy spirit glowed like a torch
Its light shown all across the room
And I thought I was a poet so my pen flowed furiously
Through thousands of unused looseleaf
Letters to the universe to set my verse free
From the pressures of perfection felt from my youth
And I thought I’d live forever through the memories
Of my many loved ones, acquaintances, my disciples,
People I might have even just brushed upon
And people reading this in a similar condition
A promising living legend thinking this might come to fruition…