Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam

Author:Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Published: 2020-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

Pipeline III

I remember that time

when we had a final

and Ms. Rinaldi

was showing slides of old paintings

we learned about

We had to memorize

the artist’s name and the year

it was painted

Extra credit for naming the style and country

like Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Italy

Monet and Impressionism in France

Picasso and Cubism in Spain

Halfway through the slides

I raised my hand and asked

Did other people around the world paint

or just old white men from Europe?

Everybody laughed

She sent me out of her class

and failed me for being disruptive

I was supposed to go to the principal again

But I just walked out of the building

and didn’t come back for a week

I suspended myself

But then the school called Umi

and she was tiredso tired

of yelling at me

of trying to get me to focus

of trying to get me to try

Umi said

I had big dreams

I had huge talent

but I fucked up my grades

in school or maybe

school fucked up

my lifeIt’s hard to tell

But I’m sure about one thing

I’m not dumb

I know my math, my science

my Englishall that shit

I especially know my

art and words

How to bend and twist

them into

truth

I know

it’s hard to tell

just by looking at me

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