Poem of the Week: Lauryn Nesbitt

Lauryn Nesbitt: Congo (Spoken Word)

         

   

Congo

For those who have lost their lives during the ongoing genocide in the Congo, as well as the many lives lost in genocides all over the world. Your bloodshed shall and will not be in vain. We will find peace.

As long as you wake up everyday you should have  

no reason to complain, right

i guess if i'm still breathing then i'm not really

suffering

Well if that's the case i'll give every other breath

To the 6 million Congolese people who have died  

fourteen out of my fifteen years of days i don't

complain about

Lived in fear their whole life only to die brutally

and unjustly

Because someone was following orders

Being a law abiding citizen

An unjust law is no law at all

The next time i touch my screen i will say

Madsi Pa

Because someone died for this

Not even given a proper burial

Please do understand that a street corner or

pot-holes in the road do not suffice as coffins

Where is the tombstone

6 million beautiful African names all gone with the

wind now

Somewhere a little girl doesn't understand the

meaning of

You're named after your great great great grand-mother

That the last time this name was written it was with an

X

Now with a signature she has been practicing since

she was seven

Quiet honestly

i don't have to go through triangles or bloody
current to see the redness in mother's eyes because
she cried all night

That monotone pitch her voice is now concealed in
from screaming her child's name

She didn't bother about putting makeup on today

No queen collection can mask her wide-eyed ghost
look

See, i can close my eyes every night and act like it
doesn't exist

Turn my TV off right before the Yele infomercial

Refuse to watch channel 5 because it's day twenty
and there are sixteen bodies and counting

Or hum to that sad music they play on the Food for
America PSA

i can even wish that i could give the little boy on

that feed the children of Africa a tissue for his nose

Missing the whole purpose of why i should call
them and not my best friend because they're both
asking me to spot them a twenty

When you think about it

Suffering is like god

You may not always see it
you may never see it
but it is real and
it's out there.

             

-Lauryn Nesbitt    

Used by permission.     

From Lauryn's chapbook, Disturbing the Piece, 2012. 

  

Lauryn "Poetic Hyst" Nesbitt is a 17 year-old senior in the Literary Media and Communications department at Duke Ellington School for the Arts. She hopes to pursue a career in film production. She has bloomed into a powerful and inspiring slam poet, performing her work at venues such as the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Millennium Stage, Busboys and Poets, Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York, her high school's graduation ceremony for the class of 2011, and the Atlas Theater. Lauryn is a two year member of the DC Youth Slam Team and she recently placed 2nd in the 2012 Larry Neal Writers' Competition teen category. When she's not pressing pen to paper she's your average teenager juggling homework, friends, and family. 

 

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