BORN IN A CENT LYRICS - All We Can Do

BORN IN A CENT LYRICS

"All We Can Do"

someone wrote "i love you"

on the desk where i sat

as i read black and white

jim crow and all that

like the 14th amendment

and the fight for good schools

and the fight that continues

or so says langston hughes,

"i swear to the Lord

though i still cannot see

why democracy means

everybody but me."



and i laugh for langston,

for what we don't have

but someone wrote "i love you"

on the desk where i sat

as i read brown and black

and the struggle back then

that moves beyond cuba

in the words of guillen

for poesia negra

for the Black artist's name

to "express our individual selves

without shame."



and it’s all that we can do



and i cry for guillen

"tengo, vamos a ver,"

i have this education

i have people to care

i have someone who wrote "i love you"

on the desk where i sat

i have me, i have her

i have all that i need to have

but this fight, it continues

no matter how much love calls

no matter where we find it written

sharpies on bathroom stalls



and it’s all that we can do



and i fight for my lover

and i fight for myself

with fists made of roses

picked by the rebels

i'm fighting and scarring

and amidst the combat

there's someone who wrote i love you

on the desk where i sat

i write "i love you too"

though i don't know who s/he is

in a world filled with hate

only our love can win



so i love for the better

and i love for the best

i love cause i have to

by the beat of my chest

cause when the whole world shouts

to fight red with more red

i ask what about using yellows

and violets instead?

when i forget my blessings

and the poets i quote

i'll remember that "i love you"

that a stranger wrote.