A Semi-Finalist from the 2020 Button Poetry video contest.
Do you love Button Poetry? We’d love your support: https://bit.ly/BPMember2
About Button:
Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
0:07
i remember when i was a child i would
0:08
ask my mom to leave the light on the
0:10
door open down the hall
0:13
just in case i would hear the wind or a
0:14
broken branch that might fall or the
0:16
rattle of a window or a
0:18
shadow standing tall climbing up my
0:20
bedroom wall and scaring me at night
0:22
because i was a child
0:24
i was so small it was a comfortable
0:28
feeling knowing that the light was on
0:29
and i could slightly raise my voice just
0:31
in case something ever went wrong but
0:32
nothing ever went wrong
0:35
but i could always sleep through it all
0:37
having all the comfort of knowing that
0:39
my mother and my father
0:40
were on the other side of the wall
0:51
it’s the sound of children’s screams
0:52
turning through an abandoned walmart
0:54
hall
0:54
and the sound of chain link fences and
0:56
stomping boots
0:58
and aluminum sheets covering them all i
1:00
don’t
1:01
have a mother or a father today that i
1:03
can call
1:05
i went goofy and potty in my pants
1:08
three times today
1:14
i can’t explain it all it’s the hiking
1:16
streams and terrorists that keep me
1:18
awake
1:19
[Music]
1:30
[Music]
1:37
i’m a five-year-old kid
1:44
mama can you turn the light on and open
1:48
the door down the hall
1:51
but there’s no one to listen and this is
1:54
a sad time that we make america great
1:57
that on this day children are suffering
2:00
from lifelong post-traumatic fate
2:04
can you hear the children sobbing echoed
2:07
loneliness
2:08
down the hall trump said they’re an
2:10
infestation
2:13
most of them are three feet tall
2:26
[Music]
2:44
you
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
***
You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
 Escape the Act Like a Man Box |
 |
 |
 |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Shutterstock
