I love my mother and don’t mind letting the entire world know about it. Watch this video and share it with the “moms” in your life.

A Brother’s Future

I sit and listen to the future of my past as my mother’s voice conveys tones of concern about my brother who’s growing up in my shoes, yet making his own steps in his direction. I sit listening to the future of my past as he lands on that middle ground between child and adult. My mother’s concern for him now becoming more obvious.

I tell her not to worry and she asks me to pray for him. What he is facing, I have faced in almost the same ways. Her voice lightens for a second then she tells me the reason why she worries. I hear the love in her voice for her #2 son… the same love she has for me, but different.

(CLICK HERE to watch the video for this poem)
It’s not about going where it’s safe… but where you’re needed.

Safe

Cops stay away – fearing for their lives
While families in urban cities face anxiety everyday…
Call for help and you’ll realize
Response time is like the government’s to Katrina…
While bullets fly in rapid succession
No chance for reflection as select corner blocks are ruled by thugs and drug lords
It’s Hell on earth for some.
In a System that devalues a family’s worth.

Come 96th street separation begins…
Segregation exists – you see it on subway trains
And in neighborhood schools where Color rules the terrain
Caucasian students are the minority.
The worst schools in the nation are a majority in ghetto plantations
Kids stand for hours to get through metal confiscation
Like at the school, in the news, where students protested and said:
We’re kids – not convicts!