The 'Allegiance' Poem by Timothy Quevedo

I go to a school where the hallways are filled with bodies and no shadow to follow them. To have a shadow, A body must shed off some light. I go to a school where kids must recite The Pledge of Allegiance. We pledge to an allegiance we don't have. We pledge ourselves to these cold desks and wooden pencils used to make stray marks over letters and numbers. We pledged ourselves to listen, to obey, to understand, but we never had he choice to pledge to learn the real world. We are taught bad things happen, but we are never taught the reason. We are taught that there will be murderers, but we arent taught that we Are slowly killing ourselves. We are taught we were born to be successful, but never has a teacher has had the gut to teach us how to be happy. We are taught that crime happens, but we never knew that we are committing to them. Every day I see white crime on black crime on black crime on white crime. Every day a child is born, while another dies. Every day a person is ridiculed for being gay. Every day a son or daughter is bullied for not having too much.. Every day a person dies of hunger because our stomachs are filled with greed. Every day a woman will be seen as a sheet of paper waiting to written on because the size of her breasts. Every day I pass a person who I know is having a bad day and yet I do nothing about it because if I utter a word he will respond with ' We are not united.' Every day I wake up to get ready for a day filled without shadows and a pledge I will never say because I can't find a way to put it in my own words. We are taught that the name of our country is The 'United' States of America, but we arent taught that we are not united.