What's Goin' On?

I do not own the rights to the music

Please do me a favor and close your eyes. I’m completely serious you can trust me just close your eyes I’ll tell you when to open them

Now think. Think back to the days when you energizer bunny-ed your way through playtime. Think about the times when toys, barbies, and recess were the ingredients needed to make endless bliss

Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish?

Laughing, running, panting, playing, resistant to stopping. We can’t stop being happy. We won’t stop being happy. Throwing a fit at whoever decides to get in their way. Please keep your eyes closed and think.

Think back to the days where your biggest concern was what your mother was going to pack you for lunch. When you would count the seconds until you could high five your best friend in homeroom class. And on Saturdays when you would wake up like it was a mission just to watch cartoons: Doug, Recess, Pepper Ann, Voltron, Thundercats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Please excuse me as I turn up the volume as I sit hypnotized losing track of any sense of time because back then what was time? Only breaking to eat my Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Please keep your eyes closed. And think back to the times when your night-light played the hero at bedtime, when passing a note in class was like an Oceans Eleven mission and when making eye contact with your crush for just one second felt like eternity.

Please open your eyes.

Can you remember? Can you taste it? Can you feel it? Can you see it? What happened to the days when you would fall asleep on the couch and miraculously wake up in your bed having no earthly idea how you got there? What happened? What changed? At what age did you realize that having your heart broken was just a repetitive offense you had to get used to? At what age did you realize that you were afraid more of inadequacies than you were of monsters? At what age did you realize that no matter bad or how good you looked it was out of your control and society was going to use it as an excuse to imprison you into a category that was going to be nearly impossible to escape from. Let’s just pray that you made it into the right one.

At what age did you realize, did you know, did you have to understand that waking up tomorrow is never going to be promised?

Every day above ground is a good day. There’s truth there.

And no matter how much you take each breath for granted, this world will remember your absence once it dissolves into the atmosphere. The only thing you leave behind is your story. And your story is nothing more than the choices you make. Each letter, each page, littered with the way you made other people feel. There’s truth there. No trust but truth there.

So how do make other people feel? Because that’s you. What do you do? What can you do? What will you do when a reality that liposuctions the beauty out of your imagination making you shed your creativity as if it were just unnecessary fat. Just make it burn because your soul has reached its maximum capacity. There’s no more room and no vacancy for your boundless love there.

Now let’s put all of our cards out on the table and be honest with each other for just one second.

Fair has never been in our vocabulary. This world has been bursting at the seams with injustice since its conception. The scale tipping toward the people with power instead of the people with passion. So good luck being different because you were the underdog before you were even thought of but it doesn’t have to be that way.

You know, they say poetry can change the world. That words can sprout wings and fly. That the structures can move the masses and the thoughts can changes lives.

But we’re passed that now. We’ve done it. We’re passed that now.

And I don’t write poetry. I write prayers. So, Dear God, allow me to face hate and respond ten times louder with love. Dear God, allow us to remove those preconceived bull’s-eyes found plastered on the backs of the oppressed. And Dear God, let us regain our humanity because I don’t know if we remember that we used to have one.

You see, we weren’t born to hate; we were taught to. In a world where justice seems like a myth and equality seems like fiction; when the air is overwhelmingly poisoned with oppression, I realize that I…I can’t breathe.

Matt is not only an accomplished actor and poet, he is also a sought after motivational speaker. Catch Matt on Instagram here or his youtube channel here.