SIMON SAYS

THE FIRST ARCHIVES- A poetic journey into and through adolescence

SIMON SAYS

My skin is black or close to that.

Some think I lack what it takes to be a person.

I want the chains removed off me,

I want to be happy and free.

It’s not my fault, my lips are thick,

That, my hair won’t glide down my back.

That my nose is different.

It is not my fault I look this way!

Please don’t hate me the way you do

- Is all I have to pray.

I didn’t chose my looks,

I hope one day we’ll get past this.

I’m sorry I’m not the way you’d prefer.

Until I hear the ageless cry of equality and freedom.

For a moment I forget about my pain and sorrow,

I dwell on thoughts of a brighter tomorrow.

I start to think of a brighter day,

One which I don’t have to pay

The price of “sin”

―The colour of my skin.

Simon said end slavery.

Simon says end discrimination.

Simon says end racism.

- Living as a minority, I felt it all throughout my childhood and adolescence. Racism was very real to me. It never physically touch me but it left scars.