Beyond the District, Beyond Where We Say We Are

Sorrow from disappointment
The television ads are our salvation

SmartTrip doesn’t get us far
But we get to where we need to be
Nowhere…

Everything’s the same
Day by day
Boredom controls us all

Violence erupts
Kids smilin’
They never knew what hit ’em

The national anthem doesn’t unite us
It gives us a reason to believe
Things can never be done right

Eternal silence
The tension is unbearable
This place has a different lifestyle

School isn’t taken seriously
Texts turn into our own personal creation
Self-taught, maybe it’ll get you somewhere

Mambo sauce
Brainwashes the mind
Addicted to this, my life expectancy has decreased

Go-go beats
My heart into another dimension
Desire to dance toward sin

Scared of your shadow
These streets are from the damp and dark places
That give us a chill, a sudden fear

Everything is given to us
But it’s always turned down
Life is so much harder

Violation of all aspects
You can never own what you’ve never had
Everybody isn’t treated the same

People don’t care
About the things they bring into this world
Things just run astray

Thoughts are clustered
Focus is destroyed
Failure. Drop out.

We exist beyond the golden arch
Power is our main source of anger
Money creates this frustration

We are among the unknown
We are expected to achieve great things
Our presence ignites skepticism

The star on the map
We are creators of this asylum
–Kiana Murphy

From the Summer 2009 edition of hArtworks, a literary magazine published by Charles Hart Middle School and the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop. The magazine is written and edited by the students in the after-school writing club at Hart.