Life is Not Easy

Posted bySynnika Chizoba LoftonPosted incommunity, PoemsTags:, , , , , , , ,

climbing out of society’s
funky mouth I expose
myself to the elements
grimy and free
because this
is what it means
to be free
and energized
and in control
The frontier is not for the weak
            My life is not easy
          My life is not easy
trying to break ground
before they break
my neck—the Crosshairs
adjust without consciousness
but we asked for this
Instead of leaving
we raised fists
and children
and middle fingers
and the proper weaponry
to walk beneath violent sun
trying to become more
like the Son
refusing to run
or play the game
refusing to bow to a pimp’s
culture or a country’s
creed
            I design a different plan
            to live
            to combat
the weather
intentionally misleading
my senses    to survive
in a broken place
where the enemies change
like ideology that never really
makes sense to the people
to the people    to the people
I give up flesh
and ideas of peace
and reconciliation
and forgiveness
and the right way to do things
            The road is less traveled
            This road is populated
            by ghosts

Life is Not Easy appears in the book Saturday’s Theme. Click the image below to order a copy!

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Published by Synnika Chizoba Lofton

"Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton is an award winning poet, the president and CEO of Guerrilla Ignition LLC, host of a Nationally Syndicated radio show, and an educator, teaching literature at Chesapeake Bay Academy and English courses at Norfolk State University. Lofton has recorded more than one hundred and fifty CDs, albums, CD-singles, and mixtapes of poetry, including his highly praised debut, The New Breed. He is the author of twelve books and the founder of Riot Speech, a musical genre combining performance poetry with traditional musical forms, such as Rock, Jazz, and Hip Hop. His poems have been published in Experience Reality Magazine, Quay: A Journal of the Arts, UpStreet: A Literary Magazine, and, in 2014, Lofton has been featured in Blind Sided Magazine. He is a regular on Virginian television programs such as The Hampton Roads Show and Chesapeake’s Thinking Out Loud on WCTV. He teaches World Literature, British Literature, and Composition, while touring the country, performing at literary festivals, musical festivals, poetry readings, open mics, concerts, high schools, and colleges."

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