I really like this poem... kids are cool

This poem by Nia Davis, a 17-year old junior at Northeast High School In Philadelphia, appears in Poetic Life, Davis' prize-winning play, which was produced by the Philadelphia Young Playwrights. The play is about a group of young women grappling with stereotypes.

"I Wanna"

I wanna hear a song not written to lower someone's self-esteem

I wanna live in a world where reality doesn't cut down on a colored kid's dream

I wanna write a poem where lyrically wise it's ahead of its time

I wanna go back to the days when you thought you were rich even when u didn't have a dime

I wanna be appreciated and loved not overlooked and shoved

Onto a bookshelf, where only the old and the worthless are placed

I wanna be proud to be black, and not ashamed to show my face

I wanna walk around a store and not be expected to steal

I wanna have people not give judgment and try to understand how I feel

I wanna be free

I don't wanna hear your opinions on what you think I should be

Just let me be me

That's how GOD intended it to be

You see

I wanna turn on the news without seeing something bad

Because in reality the news people are making money off of you being sad

I wanna be able to eat French fries all day

But instead I gotta worry about what my butt and thighs are going to say

I wanna live life to the fullest

Instead of turning corners and dodging bullets

I wanna be able to cross the street without having a drunk driver hit me

Walk through and alley without having a hormonal man rape me

I wanna be able to save all the children who don't have childhoods

Substitute reality for all the hopes in the hoods

Put food on the table

Knock down all negative labels

Love and be loved

Hug and be hugged

I wanna live in a world where racism wasn't even a thing of the past

And that the people in the white sheets never torture the people who sung free at last

I wanna live in a world were the name of your god doesn't matter

And the hearts of the tsunami victims weren't shattered

I wanna not have to write a poem where I have to say what I wanna do

I want good things to happen because they're suppose to

I wanna finish this poem and have it touch your heart

I wanna see families stay together and never fall apart

Most of all I want this world to be a better place

Where people are looked at from their inside and not just their face.