Show Me The Man, Not The Thug Poem by Khauri Teverbaugh

You do not impress me ghost ridin tha whip
or by what expensive brand of booze that you sip
to see you without that haze in your eyes or that gate around your heart
I want to see you, black man...standing as you are
with your hands molding something as a legacy
to show generations to come, this is what life doesn't have to be
to see that you appreciate more than friends laid in their graves
your relationships with family is worth more and you are dying to save
them from the misrepresentation of what it really means to be strong
courageous, and to be more than what race statistics label us.

(10th May 2007)