Slam Poetry: Stand Up!

First shot at Slam Poetry: Stand Up!

Here's the full poem:

We taught ourselves to walk

In the long run, even talk

We then knew how to run

Chasing after the sun

In the beginning we were ambitious

Of the world we were never suspicious

Of the words of anyone that we met

But that was the beginning of the threat

As we grew older and wiser

The ropes got a little tighter

Around our wrists and ankles

We could now see the shackles

At first we were okay

Because we didn’t know we were prey

To a society that would dictate our future

We were bound to a lawless ruler

We became blind to the obvious

In denial of our sloppiness, our failures

In the name of being saviors

We had all become traitors

To our principles we had abandoned

Replaced by a list of excuses that had been expanded

When did we become who we are today?

How far have we been led astray?

But should we blame society for who we are?

When we were behind the wheels of our own car.

We were the ones who made every decision

Is this the you that you had envisioned?

We are a complicated form of beings

Stuck with all kinds of feelings

We sometimes believe that we’re only zeros

Some days we believe that we could be heroes

Maybe not in our own eyes

Because we easily believe lies

Because we’re so used to hate

We’ll never believe we’re great

But after all that’s said and done

Are you ready to bring out that gun?

To shoot the chains that binds you away from your fate.

To break off from the world that’s stopping you from being great

Won’t you come out of the closet and show yourselves?

Won’t you stand back up to save yourselves?

For how long will you suffer quietly?

For how long will you be a slave of society?

It’s time we get out there and show them who we are

It’s time we break free and aim for the stars

Somehow we had taught ourselves to just shut up

But I say, it’s time we stand up.

Yours truly,

Tasha Lim