If I Ruled My World

This was for an essay/poetry contest

This neighborhood I live in is driving me insane
I walk around the streets and feel so much pain
The pain of a little girl home alone ‘cause her mother would rather be out shooting up
The pain of a mother whose son got pulled into a gang and ended up getting shot up
The pain of a wife whose husband is out all hours of the night dealing
That’s why on my block pain, sadness, and worry are the only feelings
Kids run around and each one has a knife
I think to myself who would choose this life
A life where a child has to carry a shank
A life where teens are out there robbin’ banks
If I ruled my world my street would feel joy
No more pain for the mothers, wives, little girls, and boys

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream one night
So, he used it to try and make things right
He helped change the world in his own way
But, now I look around these streets today
People using racist words as a term of friendship
The same words that have caused us so much hardship
We'd rather be picking up guns instead of books
We should be doctors but instead we're being crooks
Of course it's not all of us that's not what I'm saying
But most of our neighborhoods are slowly decaying
If I ruled my world Dr. King's dream would stay alive
And his inspiration would help us to survive

Seems our generation has lost sight
We remember the result but not the fight
Boys on the street when they should be in school
Girls letting men in without protection, acting like fools
The streets full of ignorance, trash, and trouble
Seems like our crime rate is starting to double
Most of the buildings are abandoned or have started to decay and rust
All of my friends are dying violently, ashes to ashes and dust to dust

I wish being Black didn’t come with so many generalizations
But most of all I wish we didn’t give them a reason for allegations
All addicts should be getting their lives back on track
And when convicts get out they shouldn’t go right back
Don’t drive through the white towns, just turn back
Or you’ll get a DWB and that’s Driving While Black
Police brutality and racial profiling go hand in hand now
And I just can’t seem to understand why and how
They can always find a way to keep us down
‘All men are created equal’ as long as your skin isn’t brown
If ignorance is bliss we must be on cloud nine
Kids only 8 cursing and thinking that it’s fine
I walk down the street and see crack addicts asleep on the walkway
I can’t stand this mentality any longer, there’s no way I can stay
I don’t know anymore what’s wrong and what’s right
I don’t see in color anymore, it’s all black and white
That’s not the way the world’s supposed to be
If I ruled my world we would all REALLY be free


If I ruled my world, dreams would come true
If you can make a change, I’d leave it up to you.
In my world, no voice will be silenced or stopped.
In my world, no suggestion would be criticized or dropped.
In my world, condoms would be handed out in school
In my world, there would be guidelines, not orders and rules
In my world, every child would have somewhere to go
In my world, no hospital or rehab can tell anybody ‘no’
In my world, a second chance would never be tuned away
Because in my world everybody knows people sometimes lose their way
If I ruled my world, this is how life would be every day
But, I don’t rule my world, at least not yet anyway