If lions still roar in America
then does my voice speak
for a land I have never seen?

Again, a delegate for places
I can claim but can’t own.
This woman, a queen even

ambassador for a continent
confused as a nation
laid down what needs to be done
to us all seated at the round table.

I asked one question,
and it was as if I, the youngest
in the room by far had
figured out the most amazing discovery.

“It’s as if all textures of black skin
have similar problems so is there
something we can do to connect
the two groups of youth together?”

They were astounded and baffled,
but the ghetto is not an American concept,
this plight is not of one nationality or color,
maybe there is a difference
between a Kenyan teen with no parents
and a teen with no parents back stateside.

Maybe murders, and school shootings
and attacks covert or in the open
are defined differently across borders
but they wouldn’t know how to tell us that.

If a child is shot down in
Johannesburg, or Lagos
do the creeks for eyes run the same
as they do in Detroit, or Chicago?

If a lion roars behind bars
does it matter
where the zoos are located?

The nation where we all began
is in the most turmoil
and filled with the most youth,
and just maybe because
those old enough to lead them
don’t see solutions like
if I’m hurting and you’re hurting
from a common cause

then let’s come together
for a cure to this pain.

We live in a world without parents
and children in offices
playing president and prime minister.
Look across the street and see similarities
with Cape Town,
I can’t have civil privileges
because of my age, skin, or income.

What is so farfetched
about unity?
If a tiger is killed over
game or because someone feels
it should have been caged,
a lion will still tear up,
just like a panther,
just like a cougar,
just like an alley cat.

My voice can’t speak
for those hurt teens.
I’d just like to know
why
nobody will listen
to any of us.