their high school principal told me i couldnt teach poetry with profanity so i asked my students raise your hand if youve heard of the holocaust in unison their arms rose up like poisonous gas then straightened out like an ss infantry okay please put your hands down now raise your hand if youve heard of the rwandan genocide blank stares mixed with curious ignorance a quivering hand out of the crowd halfway raised like a lone survivor struggling to stand up in kigali luz are you sure about that no thats what i thought carlos whats genocide they wont let you hear the truth at school if a person says fuck cant even talk about fuck even though a third of your senior class is pregnant i cant teach an 18 year old girl in a public school how to use a condom that will save her life and that of the orphan she will be forced to give to the foster care system carlos how many 13 year olds do you know that are hiv positive honestly none but i do visit a shelter every monday and talk with six 12 year old girls with diagnosed aids while 4th graders three blocks away give little boys blowjobs during recess i met an 11 year old gang member in the south bronx who carries a semi automatic weapon to study hall so he can make it home and you want me to censor my language carlos whats genocide your books leave out emmett till and medgar evers call themselves world history and dont mention king leopold or diamond mines call themselves politics in the modern world and dont mention apartheid carlos whats genocide you wonder why children hide in adult bodies lie under light color eyed contact lenses learn to fetishize the size of their ass and simultaneously hate their lips my students thought che guevara was a rapper from east harlem still think my mumia t shirt is of bob marley how can literacy not include phillis wheatley schools were built in the shadows of ghosts filtered through incest and grinding teeth molded under veils of extravagant ritual carlos whats genocide roselyn how old was she cuntos aos tuvo tu madre cuando se muri my mother had 32 years when she died ella era bellsima whats genocide theyve moved on from sterilizing boriqua women injecting indigenous sisters with hepatitis b now they just kill mothers with silent poison stain their loyalty and love into veins and suffocate them whats genocide ridwans father hung himself in the box because he thought his son was ashamed him whats genocide maureens mother gave her skin lightening cream the day before she started the 6th grade whats genocide she carves straight lines into her beautiful brown thighs so she can remember what it feels like to heal whats genocide whats genocide carlos whats genocide luz this this right here is genocide reposted from http carlosandresgomez tumblr com poems