I don't know why the caged bird sings

I see crowds of people, walking round, in a ring
African Heritage People, Proud to sing
and dance and paint and draw
I see them rushing, Now Here, Now There, Nowhere
People of Nature, made unnatural, unprepared
un read in tooth and claw

I saw once warriors, turn their strength to games
Nubian fuel, feeding futile infertile flames
Martial heads under artist's caps
I saw boy men stride and strut to play, heads high
Then Limp to work as chocolate hungry, babies cry
at baby mothers boot straps

My Eyelids meet with force to hold the flood
A salty prayer to stem the issue of my blood
I see the light, inside, strong
Insight, in side, within me, the wit in me
the wit in us, in us, within us the 'free'
You see, it's time, to stop the song!

Graduation Day

Once there was a time
when a man could outgrow the child
at the age of thirteen
a rite of passage would set him free
then they said
he's too young, alone to tread
the path of life
to raise wife and child
so they said when he wasn't listening
You won't be capable until you are sixteen
When two times eight arrived
almost too late they realised
he had not learned enough to really handle life
18 was still a teen
and by 21 what had he really seen
when you reach your quarter century
we'll test you to see if by then you just might be
free of all your childish insecurity
35 would come and pass
and see him still in class
confused unclear
of just exactly where
his best interests would be
and when the rules would set him free
at 40 now when life begins
he understands some vital things
to live means to cease to pray
to truly seize the day
to give means to cease to prey
move from putty into hardened clay
there is no predetermined time or day
or wise elders who can rightly say
who or what or when or why
just as none can know the length of life
So I choose to LIVE by a code that's mine
any other road is to choose to die
for death can breathe and run and fly
and still, you know you're dead by the pain of why
for life without a purpose of my own
is an empty cage, the bird has flown
I don't know what the end may be
and so I'll choose it before it chooses me
there's no life exam no predetermined fate
I will be free of others rules today
today I graduate. - TCoD

It's not hard if you have a passion for it!

"Education experts say youngsters as young as 10 can experience great achievement at an early age if their thirst for knowledge is encouraged and they are given opportunities to shadow professionals and get internships. Also, a rigorous study schedule that also builds in some recreation is key." Jackie Jones, June 16, 2009, BlackAmericaWeb.com

"It's not hard if you have a passion for it" Tony Hansberry

"A Jacksonville researcher has developed a way of sewing up patients after hysterectomies that stands to reduce the risk of complications and simplify the tricky procedure for less-seasoned surgeons. Oh, and he's 14 years old. Feel free to read that again." JEREMY COX, APR. 24, 2009

Tony Hansberry II isn’t waiting to finish medical school to contribute to improved medical care. And he's only 14.

Hansberry responded to a challenge to improve a procedure called the endo stitch, used in hysterectomies that could not be clamped down properly to close the tube where the patient’s uterus had been. The teen devised a vertical way to apply the endo stitch and, using a medical dummy, completed the stitching in a third of the time of traditional surgery.

“It took me a day or two to come up with the concept,” Hansberry said.