Through the good graces of Andrew Sullivan's blog, from which I'm borrowing shamelessly here, Australian poet-rapper Omar bin Musa (and here) declaiming his poem "Fireflies,"which ends this way:
This poem is for the survivors, it's for the outcasts,
it's for the eccentrics who never let coolness whitewash their madness.
This is for the kids on the mish, the kids on the pavements, in the basements,
in the flats and in the schoolyards.
They will treat your voice like a crime for which you have no alibi,
So make it a crime of passion.
Raise it at their eyes,
shoplift time,
pickpocket perseverance
from the haters and leave the rest behind.
Speak with purpose,
teeth brighter than a city's spine.
Little wind though it may be,
who knows?
Maybe someday, one day, the fireflies will return.*
At a moment in history in which maleficent clowns wanting to seize the nomination for the American presidency are attacking education (particularly for the children of the down and out, the nobodies of the world), and when the same maleficent clowns are arguing for the substitution of warped religious notions for bona fide schooling in our educational systems, it means something to me to hear a voice with such passion and critical insight.
A voice with such passion and critical insight specifically addressing those children of the down and outs whom the maleficent clowns want to write out of the social contract. And telling those young people that their voices count.
When someone somewhere can continue to write such poetry, I hold onto hope.
*I've transcribed the poem as I hear Musa speaking it on the video above. His own written lyrics at his website, to which I've provided a link, differ slightly from what he says in the video reading of the poem.
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