22yrs old and born Winston-Salem (an ode to Langston Hughes)

Damon Young 1976 (Winston-Salem, NC)

February 22 


you critiqued my critique
of a dead white man's societal critique
you gave me a b
i suppose we see things differently
like langston's critique of english b
before me
my education is what i see
what i choose to write is
my representation of reality
i apologize for forgetting
he was born in thirteenseventyeight
i thought learning was the lesson not the date
i know the pain of tracing roots
and i'm sorry I was late
i was just wondering why our realization
didn't explain the hate
it is there then
I still see it now
the consistency

About this poem

A critique of what it means to be educated inspired by reading Langston Hughes and finding out that I was born in Winston-Salem like him.

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Written on April 25, 1998

Submitted by dyoung on February 24, 2022

Modified on May 01, 2023

31 sec read
85

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBBBBCBDEEFEGEHIB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 533
Words 100
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 19

Damon Young

DAMON YOUNG Connector. Dreamer. Speaker. Poet. As a way of introduction, I decided to aim for Brevity. An author I respect challenged his readers to tell their story in 12 words or less. Here are a few of my attempts to tell my story in 12 words: Created and deputized to restore things in a beautiful and broken world. Tended to the best that they knew how, God’s adopted, in love. A wonder filled boy, aspiring to be a wizard who tells jokes. more…

All Damon Young poems | Damon Young Books

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    "22yrs old and born Winston-Salem (an ode to Langston Hughes)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/121746/22yrs-old-and-born-winston-salem-(an-ode-to-langston-hughes)>.

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