So instead of following the program
I get Kadon
Amir, Smoke, and Rah
to help me sketch out the mural
Imani made sure to get approval
from Cheryl-Ann Buford
It’s the least she could do
since the supplies arrived so late
Stanford
will be the officer
in charge
Still
the next morning
I start prepping the wall
while the Four Corners
are in the mess hall
No one is here to watch me
for now
and in this moment
I am free
I should’ve been painting that night
or sketching or thinking or reading
but my home was starting to feel like a box
My room was starting to feel like a box
The home that I’ve known all my life
was squeezing in around me
forcing me to be small, small
when all I was doing was growing tall
Growing too wide for all the boxes around me
Umi couldn’t contain me anymore
I wanted to get the fuck out
push back walls
so that I could
punch the air
make an opening
wide and tall enough
for me to step in
and fly
and soar
I draw myself
I draw Kadon
I draw Imani
I draw Dr. Bennu
I draw Amir, Smoke, and Rah
I draw wings
All of us with wings
we fly we fly we fly
Above all the chaos
below
is a remix of my
favorite painting
Guernica, by Pablo Picasso
with its distorted faces and bodies
in warin warin war
But like dust
we rise
we rise
we rise