Mustafa Sullivan
Am I Accepted
July 19, 2009
Am I the rumors that are spread about me,
Am I the countless stories told over and over again,
Am I unknown even to myself!
I didn’t recognize the man
Staring me back in the mirror,
He seemed to question everything
I’ve ever stood for,
Everything I thought I was-
But who am I to need to him know-
Judging my actions the way he does
Echoing the voices of others
Telling me how to stand how to speak
How to listen and how to feel,
It’s so easy to get lost
When following other people’s footsteps
Of dark mountains into the unknown
Wilderness where everyone fears
Their own shadow-
I will not fear what’s inside of me!
Voices of incomplete struggles
Too scared to stand up to your
Inner fears and judgements made
From hollow people who don’t
Know themselves-
You can be what you want to be
Just as long as you
Choose for yourself-
Just as long as you listen to your heart
And as long as you don’t try
To run away from your
Own mistakes-
That journey is impossible
And neverending, a maze of doubt
That goes on forever,
Self denial is a fool’s game
That too many people try
To gamble with until they
Hit the wall-
Thick with images of
False prophets and manufactured values
And broken innocence because
We were told to be something else!
The clouds are full with forgotten
Dreams of bolder men and women
Who unlocked their true
Selves, only in dreams
Some us find the courage
To fly above the clouds!
Journey
May 10, 2009
I must journey far away from home
To find my true home.
I must color outside the lines
To find my honest color.
I must listen to your voice
To find my own voice.
Thousands of miles on our feet
Segmented geographically and socially misinformed
By government separation tactics,
Remember everyone is a refugee
Running away from tyranny to
Another version of the same tyranny,
Each of us
A victim of worldwide hunger
Of the mind body soul
Whose souls came together melted
Your story into the land, painted
By our struggles where we thought
We were alone and yet we
Befriend strangers who knew
Us in other lives,
Have you ever met someone for the
The first time and it felt
Like you’ve known them forever,
Or found something in them
You once only found in your self,
My family is not only my family
My color is not only my color
My pain is not only my pain
And when I rise and seem to be alone
My brethren rises miles apart
So we Stand together always,
That’s why most of us laugh the
Same cry the same, singing the same
Songs of our collective rhythm
Built in our hearts first!
Innocent conversation leads to
Well meaning small talk leads to
The foundation of new communities
No longer victimized by corporate
Misinformation or false competition or
Stubborn individualism or
The hypocrisy of xenophobia-
We must remember that we have one blood
One skin one human race-
We must see the wealth in each other’s eyes
Because wall street sees us
As human capitol
Profit always ending up in their pockets
Using us with our silent consent
As the cogs in their machine
As the floor to their glass ceiling,
And so in this rat race we forget-
No I will remember the faces of our
Ancestors
Never forget the the worker’s struggles are
Our struggles-hand in hand, neighbor
To neighbor nation to nation
We are being melted down,
Cut off and blinded and numb and miseducated-
In your eyes lies my salvation
In your heart you are my hero
And in your home I can be free!
A Common Delusion
March 29, 2009
Common blood flows through common veins,
Heartless actions keep us caged the same.
Bound up in our own image and afraid,
Scared to break away from the lies we made.
Speaking 4,000 dialects of our collective pain,
Attacked by masked religion protecting the vain,
To live so free and cold and alone.
My soul is metal, my body is stone
Isolated by colors made from the same cloth
Eating holes in my freedom like an innocent moth
Fighting my brothers today, my sisters tomorrow
Sun melting earth, none hears her sorrow.
I was born uncompromising with a jihadist’s will,
My spirit is angry for the countless America has killed,
My ancestors died without the rights I have today,
Never forget the sacrifices you never had to pay.
I vote because power is in everything I touch
I’m foreign to this land ‘cause I want to change too much
If I was a woman I could never give birth
Too many lost children alone on this earth,
I could never be wealthy while so many know hunger
I will never be free while my people suffer.
The loudest storms darken all our lands,
The Greatest demons have sullied all our hands
No one is perfect and None above judgment,
But all hearts need love, everyone must repent.
Common homes built with the eldest wood
Power built out of a fiery black mood
I stood on top clouds just to see my hood
Darkness always comes to corrupt the good.
I stood STILL AS THE Mountains!
Built a shield out of PASSIONS!
I never fear the Danger,
Demanding unnamed strangers
to stop stealing our homes-
Loans made of honest dreams
throwing debt STONES,
at our collective future, smiling- while raping our bones
Destroying African Latino Iraqi and Afghan homes,
Every single second, every passing hour
stolen dreams of poor people, Reagan’s forgotten power.
Unite today, Fight the barriers they create
To sever ourselves is our gravest mistake!
Divided we stand and together we fall,
It’s a common delusion to think we’re alone at all!