Listen to my Words by Makayla Booker

You will listen to my words.

You will not merely hear a few verses and deem them credible.

You will not just hear a few words that rhyme and deem it incredible.

You will not get hypnotized by my smooth words that I speak.

You will not hear my powerful words and perceive them as weak.

You will not make my heart warming words of a calm serenity callous.

You will not determine the quality of what I speak by who talks the fastest.

You will not see me pumping my first in the middle of a crowd trying to get recognized.

You will not see me in a haze of Mary Jane, or crystal, thinking I can fly.

You will not see me as another voice that's lost in the echo.

You will not make me out to be someone that doesn't know.

You will not make me into someone who just puts on a show.

You will not say “She only writes about the struggle but doesn't live it.”

You will not assume what size I will fit.

You will not determine the value of my words by what you see?

You will not look at me and just see a 15 year-old black girl because that isn’t all there is to me.

You will not see me and see a girl from the ghetto.

You will not see me as being under you as low.

You will not make a mockery out of my name.

You will not belittle me so that you can earn you 15 minutes of fame.

You will not brush off what I say because you don’t want to hear the truth.

You will not silence me and cut me down to my roots.

You will listen to my words, for I have something to say.

You will listen to my words, even if I need to have it engraved where my cold body lay.