Walls…consume us.

Walls are there for others' entertainment.

As well as yourself.

Entertain your doubt and conscience.

Repression makes sense.  

But throughout the years you can hear their whispers.

Building in your bones and hindering your joints.

You can't move.

You can't MOVE.

Who is the wall for, me or you?

Following the ladders in society.

You’re in my way; Is our most favorite phrase

Used over time by myself and others.

Celebrities, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, 

uncles,                                              friends,

cousins,                                             lovers,

Neighbors,                                         Kids,

Store Owners, Employees,  and… they consume us.

Around and around the little brick road I see them.

Feel their grooves grace my fingers as they do my ears.

Watch every lick of sweat I protrude moisten their egos to satisfaction.

They take the cork from my bottle; smell the fear as the rim reaches their lips. 

But the salt cocktail I create is not authentic, or pleasurable enough to call open 

a window of air to provide hope.

Hope replaces Where’s Waldo around here; 

So hard to find but amongst the crowd.

Watching the walls warp from their want

as they take in each drop. 

Their greed and desires grow vines to strengthen

the bonds of neurons in our minds.

Till one day the walls are all we know and all we are.

Waldo’s on the other side…

I do not wish to live in a society 

where barbed wire replaces our white picket fences.

I do not wish to live in a world so square, 

but I guess that's why the world is born round.

So we know of the salted blood others buried to build our society.

So we know of the plagues our ancestors faced to morph our customs.

So we know some walls can be disguised as round. 

It's the most lucrative of boxes because there are no corners to cut.

No straight lines to call barriers or territories.

It should be everyone's…

Yet, we draw lines on our lands and on our peoples' skins.

We draw borders on countries and states.

We draw the United States of America. 

I wonder if we are trying to hide our sins in boxes we make.

Walls we understand.

So that one day the world is forced to form our desired image.

Four walls, four corners, and lines we carved square.

Walls we understand.

People forget how lucky we are to be born in a box so round. 

So plentiful and free with air.

It should be all of ours, but we constantly choose shapes 

not made for everyone there. 

Like this time I tried to color Ariel black, 

for the new movie in my preschool cousin's coloring book. 

Mothers gave me quick looks and questioning glances.

But their kids never stared. 

They were more put off that my fish had no hair.  

They did not see the mold printed on paper.

Subtle hints to paint it the “right way”.

Paint it as it was during their parent's decade. 

I did not think a little girl's princess book had so many rules. 

I want to see the world through kid's eyes in this day. 

They see shapes that can be filled in 

with any color on any page anywhere. 

That's the world I want to be in here and now.