There is a war coming, I can smell it on my breath
and taste it on my skin. I can feel it in my bones
and hear it in my thoughts because the battlefield
is my body, a body full of scars. A body clothed
with skin the sun burns so much, sometimes it has
to take shade under the moon. A body that has
become the shooting target for life’s tragedies
more than its blessings. A body I call home
is also the city of God where the earth
and the wind come to worship His creation.
But in the interim there is a war coming
so I’m preparing for my first kill to protect
my body and its essence
I’m rehearsing in repetition to kill off the parts of me
that were planted to make me feel strange
about the shade of my face, like this isn’t the image
of the one who made the night and day
I’m rehearsing to be better, that even though I’m
as dark as the night, my thoughts and self
will shine brighter than the stars. I’m rehearsing
but I don’t get to stay too long in my desired future
before I’m reminded by a voice that I’d die before
the battle begins, that deep within me
I’m still a boy, a boy who is just far away from home
desperately wishing to smell his mother’s cooking once again.
There is a war coming but I already feel defeated
I feel like I’m drowning and the only way I know to stay afloat
is to write my prayers as poems to God
reshaping my reality with the words I conjure
so today they call me a poet because whenever
I speak they see the universe sitting on the tip of my tongue
nodding to every word I utter but no, I’m not a poet
I’m a warrior, who sharpen his blade with every verse he writes.
Jay ©️ 2018
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