SLAM POETRY

Heart

by Jorin Smith

Walking out yo door
The pain you caused
My feelings lost
I don't want to do this no more
My heart sore
You I adored
I love you so much more
Impressing you
With nice clothes I wore
Damn
I felt like
I treated you right
you treated me like
I wasn't yo girlfriend insight
I want you
I wanted you
I told you I fell in love with you
I wouldn't know what to do
If I ever lost you
Is one thing I have to do
To let my hurt go away
Always crying everyday
To your face
I be nervous
To say what I have to say
Crying because I think
Of our first date
If you leave
I will wait
We need to talk
face to face
Don't be late
You're my heartache.

Father

by Charles Ehlers

A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be--Frank Clark

The problem with being who your father meant to be is
that you'd have to  know your father.

You'd need more than a two minute talk in the past ten years.
You'd need to know him as more than just the man that left you.

The problem with fathers is
you have them of you don't.

I know my father
or
I knew him.

I can vaguely remember his face.
I remember the apartment he lived in when I saw him.
I know the last time I actually spoke with him for longer than two minutes was when
I was a child.
I know a lot about my dad from pictures but not actual conversations.
I know a lot about what a dad should and shouldn't do and a dad shouldn't abandon his child.

No child should have to live a half hour away from their father and never get a chance to see him.
No one should have to explain to a child that their father is a liar.

That their father is married.
That he left to live with a wife that shouldn't exist.

When you tell them this, it takes a short time before that child realizes that they shouldn't exist.

A Ronin is a ninja without a master.
A ninja's sole purpose is to protect and, one day, exceed his master.
If a Ronin has no master, what are they trying to be better than?
If a boy as no father, what is he?
Without a father, there is no child.

I am not a Ronin.

I am not here to be better than him.
I was not born to be better than him.
I am already better.
I was a mistake, but I'm still a person.
I'm a mistake but that's because I am my father's son.

Untitled

by Briana Morin

You're dumb, they said.
It'll be too hard, they said.
Why didn't you have an abortion, they said.
He'll leave you, they said.
Your life is over, they said
You're making a huge mistake, they said.
You're a slut, they said.
You're only 18, they said.
You're not strong enough, they said.
You'll crack under the pressure, they said.

But what they didn't say was,
She'll be the best thing that ever happened to you.
She'll be the one that keeps you going when you feel like the world is against you.
She'll be the only person you know for sure will always have your back no matter what.
She'll be the tiny human that steals your heart instantly.
She'll be the true meaning of love at first sight.

Teen motherhood is no curse.
It's a blessing from above and I've noticed that every time I look in Riley's eyes.

I Love My Country

by Chloe Parquet-Evans

I swear I love my country,

though now a days everyone seems to be unhappy,

Trump is president 

now and riots are started here and there, 

people break out in fear everywhere.

They don’t know 

what to do now that they can’t say what the future will be,

But can’t they see.

Isn’t this familiar behavior, 

blacks for so long had no say,
But to be killed or stuffed on boats and cast away.

They were taken 

away from their families and sold,
there resources and rights taken.

We helped build this nation,
yet rights forsaken.

My mom always 

told me you work twice 

as hard as the white man to be noticed,

But I think it just made me that much more focused.

This is not 

to be a white shaming or guilt.

It is 2017 and look at the country we have built.

Though all peoples 

thoughts have not changed much since 1950’s and civil rights.

Not all bad people are white.

I love my country and all its diversity. 

Even if flawed in equality.

We as humans 

should not let our appearances define us, 

but unite to stand together so it can save us.

So it shouldn’t matter 

if you’re black, white, straight, or trans.

Everyone should be able to say I am who I am.

So here me 

when I say I love my country so.

Even if it does not love me back,

 there’s no place I rather go.