On July 31, 2014, 33 youth in our Urban Arts summer program put together a “Self-portraits” showcase event, from stage managing and hosting to dancing and DJ’ing. Several youth performers shared their poems with us to publish on our blog.
Spit
Spit.
To spit
Not literally
Spit rhymes
Devour poems like lunchtime
Quiet places
Words with spaces
Still ain’t got no space for me to hide
From hard times
Wasted paper
Microsoft
Loose leaf
Lead shavings
Wasted ink
My characters reach maximum
And all my thoughts I’m faxin’ ‘em
Just to transcribe ‘em lyrically
And spit
For every thought I write down
Each syllable has its own sound
But they all pierce
Like a gun wound
When I spit
When I spit it’s venomous
There are no jokes I’m serious
The venom is the tattoo left
From the inkball residue on
Library scrappings
My words
Form a canvas
Just to make you see
The metaphorical saliva when I spit
Lady, performing Spit at the Urban Arts Showcase
