Niema Jordan

Sometimes the concrete feels better than grass

Strength, heat, and determination

Unwavering even when stepped on

Always there, no matter the season

Something more inspiring about the flowers that

Grow where they shouldn’t

Sun shining where it shouldn’t

Water existing among the presumed dry and destitute

A more admirable strength in baby mamas that survive

Than scholars that were given the hand me downs of success

Hard knock sometimes more valuable than ivory towers

Because some lessons have meaning

Beyond rhetoric and theory

A level of nostalgia

Gives way to romanticizing street lives

Comfort gets mistaken for

A sign of the way things should be

And it seems easier just to go back to the way things were

The way your real friends still are

A place void of judgment

Or dumb conversations about things of no consequence

Where creativity is seen for what it is

And not looked down on as an example of the unrefined

It’s hard not going back

Aspirations to grow

Conflict with fears of forgetting

A mistake worse than selling out

Because the latter is a conscious action

A foot in each world

Isn’t as easy as it seems

Some lines are thin

But these

These are invisible

And this is what lies in the balance

When diplomas that are rarely granted

Lead to degrees that are seldom acquired

And breed identity crisis while

Have nots become haves

Without power to pull others up

Academic year brings friends with expensive habits

And notable reputations

Vacations home take us back to blocks where

The term is a pseudonym for jail time