a formality.
a sense of conformity to a group of persons
so removed
but so connected
by the thought that you are free to do as you wish
to do as you want.
to experience the life you were meant to experience.

the accomplishment of beginning
to follow your dreams.
opening doors without a bit of struggle.
the ability to feel as you may at any hour of the day.
the opportunity to exist amongst people
and finally be recognized
and realized.

unfortunately, only the privileged
are allowed to experience such dreams become earthed.
only the ones with such ability.
with such opportunity.
will have the privilege and
the ability to do everything that they are entitled to do.
as they desire.

oh. but not us.

we are those who come from the Southside.
brown faces. black faces. white and yellow faces.
all staring into one mirror where
society only sees us as people to fear.
the mirroring only validates what society wants us to see ourselves as:
as young adults who need to be disciplined.
as those who are underprivileged.
less fortunate to exist amongst those who live a few miles north of us,
of those people who are fortunate.
but to feel the openness of becoming an adult
to experience the freedom of being legal…
ain’t shit.

to those who have been living a legal life since age 13 and not
giving a shit about it
are those kids from the Southside.
brown faces. black faces. white and yellow faces.
all one who are representative of
illegal forms of legality.

thugs.
young mothers.
and fathers.
drug hustlers.
working class.
drop-outs.
you.
me.
all out in the real world.
struggling to balance school and two jobs
just to help mom and pops
to put food on the table
and a roof over our heads.

but what does legality mean to
folks who only see it as a means to
continue to see what they always
been seein?

what does being legal even mean?

coming from what you call a so-called “ghetto”
inescapable
a downward spiral
of hate
and lack of hope
filled with violence and drugs
and no exits.
an area which everyone from the
outside avoids
an area where everyone on the
inside loves to hate and loves to
love because they call it their home.

home of the fast food chains
dirty streetscapes
and art in the form of beautiful graffiti
on the walls
outside our windows
across our schools
on our streets
in our eyes
inescapable.

home of the immigrant families trying
to succeed
while ironically, succeeding to fail in a system and
living in a society where legality is only seen
as a form of validation as to whether one
should be here or not.
land of the free. home of the brave.
fuck that shit.
for this land ain’t even brave enough to give anyone freedom
to hold themselves accountable
for one another. for each other.

for being legal in a land where
they are able to cultivate its fruitions
and not live
is a land that is just as open as
using a system of numbers to
represent the privileged ability
to go out into the world
and live.

live as if you were free without restrictions.
and with convictions.
with goals.
to live as if you’ve never
experienced the world and are
now able to access all the world has to give.

but what does that mean?

what does that mean to those
folks from the Southside?
brown faces. black faces. white and yellow faces.
all who have been caught up
in a life where age holds no barriers to
what their eyes have seen
what their hearts have felt.
and to what has continued to breakdown their souls?

so I ask you,
if legality is the thing which
allows individuals to finally experience the world,
then how do you explain this to
someone so young,
who has already experienced everything?