For My People

This is for the ones that spend most days alone. Sitting in the same room with the same four walls. For the ones who get insulted, then ignored all other times. The ones who retreat into themselves, make a home inside their minds. This is for the ones forced to keep things to themselves. Because you had no one, or the “ones”, made you feel that way. You who got overlooked. Since you were dark skin, had glasses, fat, or just not “it”. The ones that hated high school, because it felt like no escape. This is for the ones too “them” for everyone else, too much “you” for yourself, you just never fit in. This is for the ones who went through life in their own worlds, the only place you found shelter. People always looked on, never made you feel welcome. This is for the ones who wrote their pains down on paper. Those who cut it in their skin, or popped more than recommended. Those who ate it at dinner. The ones who drank it from a bottle, or poured it in a glass. Those of you that used sex, tried to block it on your back. For the ones who sat numb, just wanting to die. This is for the ones who got this, who lived this, you shed a tear to. This was me too, I’ll own it. Never played at being perfect. And I’m sorry that you felt this. Stop thinking you’re alone. If you were, there’d have been no need, to write y'all in this poem. Stop thinking so lowly. Be you without apology, and the need to defend. Show the world what’s real while it fronts and pretends. Stop changing and chasing. Let ‘em act like you’re nothing, while they’re secretly hatin. Stop cringing at your past, and love who you’ve become. Yeah, it may have been a long road, but just cherish the result.