What I Saw-

(Below are a set of words I wrote
while living in Chicago, IL
​back in 2008.
They still express my thoughts to this day.)

What I Saw-

I saw a Chicago prostitute selling herself,
I saw seven oceans overfilling themselves,
I saw five pill bottles on my shelf,
And I saw you sleeping by no one else,
Under a diamond filled sky in your mind's dreams,
Where you were finally free from everything else.

I saw twenty-three miles of broken roads,
On which I saw time quickly letting my life go.

I saw plastic faces on television screens,
Broadcasting our nightmares and our dreams,
And I saw many talk the talk,
But few walk its walk.

I saw a child born of love,
And then raised of hate,
And I saw you look up and above,
To listen to your chance debate its fate.

I saw an old man laughing at youth,
And I saw many come,
But then to stay only a few.

I saw a black man cursing at a white one,
And a white one forgetting to realize,
How the black man's history in this country had begun.

I saw our leader talking in tongues,
Rambling on about a lie
​that can never be won,
As he uses our troops as pawns
under a smoke filled sun,
Only to steal their land and oil,
While burying too many innocent lives into its soil.

I saw a man so poor
that he was truly rich,
And a man so rich
that he was truly poor,
And I saw you
turn your head to ignore,
What you saw
​when you opened the truth's two-sided door.

And I heard the words of a bi-polar poet,
Who wrote many,
But wasn't really read by any.

-(Elliot Gray Van Orman)