The Wall

Water Color by Felicia Lankford | VOX Staff

Images of You
Images of you dance in my head
Spreading a huge grin across my face
Memories of you
Leaving town
Coming back
Things being too close to how they were
And things changing for the worst

Images of you dance in my head
Imagining you off in a bed somewhere
Tucked in and sheltered from the dreary night
Cradled in between your sheets
Missing me, perhaps?

Images of you dance in my head
And snippets of you laughing
I can hear them ever so softly
Because it really had to be something funny for you to laugh
Genuine laughter is what fell out of your mouth
Images of you being too honest
And being anything but subtle

Images of us
Acting serious
Acting awkward
When did we stop acting
And
Start being?
Did we?
Have we?
Will we?

Images of us
Talking till 3 a.m.
Until we were nothing but
Burnt-out brainless barbarians

Maybe my memories are sugarcoated in false realities
But I will let them dance and dance and dance in my childish rainbow colored brain
Until they commit me for being insane
Because these realities are all I have to hold on to
Now that you are gone
But look up
Do you see the same sky I do?
—Sarah Skoke, 17 The Weber School

The Cruel World I’m In
The cruel world I’m in is full of pain and rage
It’s full of backstabbing people that get mad
When they don’t get their way

This cruel world I’m in is full of prostituting
days in and out
Your family forgetting who you are
And not liking what you’re about

This cruel world I’m in is getting chased by the police
People rotting in jail, for years and months
But just not weeks

This cruel world I’m in is full of hatred and pain
Kids are joining gangs and killing people faster than dogs
Killing people with their fangs

This cruel world I’m in is going to change real soon
Because as long as I have faith in God I will not be one of the victims
To give up and die under a full moon
—Shareion, 17 , VOX Girls Group

Lyrics of Poetry
Alicia Keys once told me that
no one could get in the way of my happiness
But Keyshia Cole told me to let him go
if he can’t treat me the way I want to be treated
But Jagged Edge said if I put a little umph in it
it would make my relationship better
So Lloyd told me to forgive him and answer his players’ prayer so I did
But I called Fergie and she said move on because big girls don’t cry
When I saw Beyoncé, she told me to look out for me, myself and I
because no one else is going to
so I listened
But when I talked to J Holiday, he said that he would put me to bed
to make me feel better
But I said that was okay because if you can’t like me for who I am
then that will be okay so I did what Maya said, and moved on.
—Shauntika Williams, The New Schools at Carver: Carver School of the Arts

How You Feel
It is hard to sit down and talk
about something you did
Sometimes it hurts on the inside
when you feel sad or bad
But when you take the time to sit down
and talk about how you feel
It can help you and other people
who feel the same way
—Porscha, 16, VOX Girls Group

The Time Line
Times are hard
Folks are strugglin’
I’m still recoverin’
The wounds are current events
It’s time to get involved
Because for a long time we’ve been left out
It’s time to end homelessness, joblessness, ignorance
And it’s time to become conscious.

Carmichael told Black Fathers to go home
And tell their Black Daughters they were beautiful
Because he knew forty years down the timeline
Black Fathers would be unusual.

It’s time to heal over yesterday’s tragedies
Charge today’s life batteries
And have faith in tomorrow’s happiness.

Time is told by the sun
Man’s inventions will soon be gone
It’s time to prepare for what is to come
There has been a revelation from God’s own Son.

It’s time for our minds to be cleansed
While wolves and sheep blend.
Time to recognize the truth behind the grin
And distinguish us from them
While granting forgiveness.

It’s time to lead
We have brains to feed
There’s enough for every seed.

It’s time to be wise
No time for tricks and lies
It’s time to save our lives.
— Kalina Harrison, Tech High School

Why Do We Continue to Lead Each Other On?
In passing, we see each other and smile
Further than that is labeled forbidden
Contrast to normal, I act shy, docile
You follow as if a code were written
We know what we long for is impossible
Before we met our names were off the list
Questions are in vain, they’re not probable
My heart goes to him, for her I’m dismissed
These feelings we have are hard to ignore
Each time our eyes meet they quickly retreat
We shut our feelings behind a closed door
Though we cannot show it, each sight’s a treat
Maybe the best way is to cut the loose ends
If we can’t be, I don’t want to be friends
—Bre’Anna Brown, Banneker High School

Some 2-faced Women
It’s not even their periods talking
Speaking. So loud.
Enough for the whole world to shake.
Making themselves feel proud.
But oh, they start apologizing
and forgetting about what they say.
Why?
When they shouldn’t be talking
in the first place.
Forget about it.
Women have weird problems to cry.
I guess it’s the period talking
or is that a lie?
—Anonymous, 15, VOX Staff

Isolation
It’s so dark,
I cannot see
I cannot feel
I cannot touch
I am alone.
Why am I here?
Is it because I’m afraid?
Afraid of facing the world
Afraid of rejection
Afraid of being hurt?
I don’t know.
Maybe it’s just a phase
A phase of depression
A phase of expression
Expression of pain, sorrow and agony
Expression of death.
I wish I wasn’t in this phase
But I just can’t seem to find my way out.
So I guess I’ll stay in this dark phase.
—Sade Jamison, 17 , VOX Staff