Reason and Reasons

I was born Caucasian, but that’s not what makes me white
I cry about doing homework and staying up late at night
While another kid’s night’s highlight is a stop light drive-by gunfight
I was born Caucasian, but that’s not what makes me white
It’s not “all right” to think of being alright as a locational birthright - it’s a human right
When walking in the moonlight past midnight is what makes you suspect and your life too finite
And so, despite the daylight - that fiendish God’s rewrite - that turns what you thought was your last night - life - into a spotlight in the paper’s morning editorial insight,
(which makes you out to be the parasite)
You still feel less fright at rejection from an institution where you’d learn to read and write

You were born with tanner skin than I, but that’s not what makes you not white
I cry about getting dirt on my new sneakers or when my parents fight
You can’t exercise either of those plights, cause your dad left the house when you were three and 2’5’’
And the only shoes you’ve ever had are two sizes too tight
And regardless, it’s hard to care about government and science when you’re fighting for your life
When a “good” night doesn’t mean delight, or even a filled appetite, but simply your inner light
Still burning - alive and airtight
You know cameras are just waiting to catch you slipping, for a soundbite - to show to people like me, to makes us wonder why we ever gave your people the voting right

But I’ll never see you - you're as distant as a satellite
Because the truth is that we aren’t that far removed and you aren’t that out of sight
But if I ever figured that out - realized that you exist within my reality and are not some alien that’s too impolite
The system would be fucked
Full disclosure, We both stay up late into the night
The difference is this:
I cry about homework, cars, parties, and my phone’s lack of gigabytes
You cry about staying alive
I cry about reasons
You cry for Reason - Purpose
I cry
You cry out
To a void that will not hear you until it can fathom your light
I was born Caucasian, but that’s not what makes me white