Forward into a Dream

I lean and let gravity
play its music,
play its role in crafting
my destiny,
a purpose that I celebrate.
In my head,
a kingdom lives
with stones shaped
in an innovative design.
I breathe for those that sacrificed.
I climb for those that didn’t have a chance
to realize their potential.
This is much more than a slave song,
a ballad that circles in air
from the coast of West Africa
and makes a home on
a street corner.
I lean forward into a dream,
with a clenched fist.

Synnika Alekzander-Chizoba Lofton is an award winning, performance poet, educator, and recording artist and is the author of seventeen books and more than 150 spoken word albums and singles. He is a Literature instructor at Chesapeake Bay Academy and a lecturer at Norfolk State University. Read other articles by Synnika.