At the gracious request of my fellow Hurricanes (TNSDMFA ’14!) in honor of our graduation today from the New School for Drama MFA program, I’m reposting a poem I wrote almost seven years ago. I wrote it then, to perform at Civicorps K-5 elementary in Oakland, but really I wrote it for me, and of course…
This is for you…
because you are sometimes
picked last, picked on, and picked up late
You are pushed around, pushy, and misunderstood
You are sad some days and
scared of the dark, and the night sky, and of being alone
You are often alone
and feel lost sometimes
and prefer to live in books
and dreams, and dress up, and
playing pretend
You pretend you are somebody else,
and some place else
away from
free lunch and hand me down clothes
and playgrounds with bullies, where
all the good swings are taken and
parents who are angry and
teachers who are unfair
Away from any place and
anyone
who tells you that you are ugly, or smelly, or can’t color inside the lines, or a cry-baby, or too slow, too messy, too poor, or too stupid
Because you are smart
and wise beyond your years
An “old soul”
and you already know almost everything…
But there is one thing
you still need to learn:
You are SO COOL
You are cooler than Popsicles on a hot day
Cooler than pizza for breakfast and
staying up past your bed time
You are so cool penguins and polar bears have made a fan club for you
You are so cool ice cubes are jealous
Glaciers, icebergs, and the polar caps want to be like YOU
when they grow up
You are so cool you could single handedly
reverse global warming
and bring about the next ice age
and still have enough cool to
stop all wars
end all poverty, racism, sexism, and homophobia, and
give free health care to everyone
You are beyond cool
You are hot, fly, clean, fresh, bad, raw, crazy, ill, incredible, amazing, fantastic,
THE BEST EVER!
And above all that,
you are so cool
that it doesn’t matter what anybody else says about you EVER
And it doesn’t even matter if you don’t feel very cool
Because you will
You will have better days
and sometimes get your way
and people will start to understand you
and you will start to understand yourself
and be recognized for your hard work
You will work hard
You will graduate
from kindergarten
from the fifth grade
from junior high, high school, and college
And you will create
Anything and everything you have ever wished for
you will make come true
You will grow
and learn
and love
and live
You will survive
and heal
and break through
You will feel good
and sometimes great
And eventually
you won’t even need cool anymore because
you will have become something even better:
Exactly who you want to be
Believe me
I know this is true
because before I was me
I was You
Kirya Yvonne 