Note: Poet Warriors write with truth and purpose; this poem contains strong language, graphic details or sensitive subject matter.

Remember.

Frank Camario

My mom always taught me never
to join a gang, never do drugs and to
never forget where you came from
because it doesn’t matter what goes through
our life, to your life.

They can take your money, they can humiliate you,
torture you, strip you from everything you got,
they can leave you out cold, making you start from
the bottom
but didn’t we start there, don’t we know how its like
to be crowded in a “living room” just to get some heat
just because we couldn’t afford to pay the bill
having to wait in the line to get some free food , having to
collect food stamps.
We have been there that’s nothing new.
Once again she says quoting Drake “We started from the
bottom, now we here”

Both of us laughing and as were laughing I see her not her face
but the details that makes it,
from the sores on her feet from standing for long hours,
from her tired hands from opening boxes of chicken for 15 years in a row,
to the spits from her face from getting yelled at from bosses to clients just
because she can barely speak English
and finally to the stretch marks from her stomach to make 3 kids.

So I her tell her I won’t never join a gang, never do drugs and I
would always remember where I came from.