stood

The only one who had made me sunk to the floor of your expectations

Was me

So society, I thank you I truly do You’ve taught me that to be above the noise I had to above my own impulse to be better than the next person And instead become the best version of me

Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood

Saniya P.

Mami would never agree to that statement Of course she wouldn’t disagree directly, but rather wave it off with her neglect to hear my voice To understand...me I’m tired of being put in this cookie-cutter frame to be this “perfect nun” When I’m still trying to figure out who or what God is And I’m tired of the dirty looks I’d get from her when I ask questions about the Bible I mean, you expect me to go to confirmation classes without knowing why this book was written in the first place? I know now we were never on the same page about...well everything I used to look up to you as a little girl Mami but now...I see you as this wall that shuts me out and when I try to talk, it’s stone cold I just kissed Aman and you still punished me like I was pregnant or something I didn’t think a kiss could be so bad until I felt the rice digging into my knees as you twisted my head towards Virgin Mary, even the statue felt like it was judging me too But I wouldn’t say the prayer

Didn’t. Do. Anything. Wrong.

But you still banished me from having free time and took my phone anyway I felt like my thoughts could only be heard in my journal, the journal Twin gave me But you had to block out that communication too Everything that could listen to me the way you never did, you burned into flames The same flames I saw as my leather journal turned into ashes before my eyes Each word speaking my truth Gone. And I started to wonder...if you would burn me too if you could knowing that my poetry was there too My truth.

The Rose That Grew from Concrete is a collection of poetry written between 1989 and 1991 by Tupac Shakur, published by Pocket Books through its MTV Books imprint. A preface was written by Shakur’s mother Afeni Shakur, a foreword by Nikki Giovanni and an introduction by his manager, Leila Steinberg.