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Junior

by Hakim Bellamy

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Written after "Ageless" for the Piñon Elementary School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Delivered at their Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on January 17th, 2014.

lyrics

Junior – by hakim bellamy

How old where you
when you realized that
Black was your favorite color
because it was the absence of color
or so you were taught, in elementary school
even though it was right there
plain as day in the Crayola Box!

how old were you
when your teacher started teaching you
not to see it

you made a habit of seeing things
things that other people would pretend not seeing
like crayons
and people
and dreams

all the things you really wanted to believe in
like the absence of color
and people

how old were you
when you learned “love”
was not the opposite of “hate” …
it is the cure

how old were you
when you realized
being the middle child
was no fun

how old were you when they stopped calling you Michael?
how old were you when they stopped calling you names?
how come we're never old enough?
how come it never stops?

how old were you
when you fell in love with singing
before everyone else
fell in love with the sound of your voice

how old where you when you realized
you wanted to be Ghandi instead of Governor
when all your peers
still wanted to be policemen
and you wanted to be a preacher

and how many people can say
they had a president
phone them in prison?

how old where you when
pecan pie became your favorite meal
and if breakfast, lunch and dinner were up to you
it would be cake and eat it too

how old were you
when “war” became a “bad word”

how old where you
when you discovered the monster under your bed
was REAL
and somebody had to do something about it!

how old were you
when you decided summer needed some spring in Washington, D.C.
that August needed a March in ‘63
that our country needed to cool off and rebirth

how old were you
when you realized
we were on fire

how old where you when
they told you
you were “too old” for imaginary friends
especially, when you imagined having friends a different color than you

how old were you when they told you
“Wake Up!”

stop dreaming

how old were you
when your dreams
stopped being dreams
and we started believing in them

© Hakim Bellamy January 16th, 2014
Written for the students at Piñon Elementary School in Santa Fe for their 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. assembly.

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released January 20, 2014
Written by Hakim Bellamy

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Hakim Be Albuquerque, New Mexico

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