Dedicated to the girls in the 100 Heart Program at Fairfield High Preparatory School, this poem intertwined their motivational stories.

I flunked the first grade.

My mom on drugs, my father in love

with another being that wasn’t me

From then on I was blind, flunked everything.

I couldn’t see.

 

Fifth grade I learned what sex was

and I grew curious. Strange feelings were stirring,

growing hideous but mysteriously

making me feel good.

 

From then on in I became transformed.

I chose the path closest to the storm

because being blind led me not to see the

dangers of the world clearly.

But I wanted to be held dearly.

 

Magazines and models portraying

what I should’ve been,

 what I could’ve been,

 what I would’ve been, if I just put down the Cheetos

and ran 50 miles to nearest Maybelline store

since apparently I wasn’t born with it.

 When you’re born Black,

you’re born with a short to-do list.

 

Sadly being loved didn’t make it to the end

that’s why I had to fall in love with a boy

 who couldn’t even pretend

 to say those three words like he meant it.

 I waited hours even days for one worded text messages

thinking he was the one for me.

 He was the one to hold me so dearly

but in reality, he’s held 27 others before me

having me think that I too was his one and only.

 

In 8th grade I became pregnant.

Education and learning seemed all too irrelevant.

All I had left was the regret

 of a supposedly good night on a dented mattress

proving that I was just another one of his feel goods

 on a scheduled list of many wont’s and woulds.

 I was ruined.

Written By: Sunday Owens , Staff Writer, #mygirlsquad