“Truth” by WITS Student Suhayb Ismail
January 20, 2022
My name is truth …
but you could call me right on my ancestors’ history,
because being right is telling stories with meaning…
Remember me.
I believe in equality for my brother’s children …
I am built from glass which reflects truth and shatters with lies…
Remember me.
I come from strength that my African ancestors have shown
in true times of peril …
My people are known for resilience
like the water that can’t be broken…
Remember me.
Something people don’t know about me is I’m curious…
They think I might be uncultured …
but the truth is I want to know the culture of others…
I wish I had known who I was going to grow up as …
because when I was younger, I would have changed faster…
Living in my neighborhood makes me want to imagine a perfect world…
The radio in my head plays spontaneous…
And it sounds like a rhythm…
Sometimes it isn’t so easy for me to believe how broken thoughts create distorted memories…
My shadow looks like moonlight, a hope of what I would become…
When I’m sad, my heart sounds like a drum…
But when I’m feeling strong it sounds like a beat…
If I could sing myself a lullaby it would sound like a prayer for the future…
In my next life I’ll be a memory of a household name…
Suhayb Ismail wrote this poem while a student at Washington Middle School with WITS Writer-in-Residence Daemond Arrindell. Suhayb read the poem to open our Literary Arts Series event with Bernardine Evaristo on January 24, 2022.
Posted in Literary Arts Series Student Writing Writers in the Schools 2021/22 Season