f is for fairness feat. Shane Lory (for Crystal Spring)
from good morning, cruel world by Nico!
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about
This poem is dedicated to Crystal Spring, a role model and teacher whose values I aspire to.
Shane Lory plays the beautiful guitar in the background.
Shane Lory plays the beautiful guitar in the background.
lyrics
mid semester evaluations -
the rules come down from their
ivory tower into my basement and tell me
i need to start failing my students -
not all of them, just the ones
i’ve been giving incompletes.
when i ask why, they say
without Fs, As are worthless
other people’s success is built
on the backs of failing students.
i think about my failing students -
two weeks into class, i finally get the courage
to tell them my pronouns -
a shy student asks to do the same,
tells us, “my name max. i use
he/him/his pronouns.”
it takes the class a few weeks
to catch up with the news, but they do.
a few weeks later, max goes missing
i get a call from his mom, she says
“abby is in the hospital. she
tried to hurt herself.”
i am told to give max an F
but isn’t that what everyones already done
checked that F box
on his birth certificate
his student id
his hospital intake form
and i don’t want to add to that list
when he probably already equates
F for failure
at being recognized in the mirror.
and i think about danny
danny showed up a month late
out of prison, and spent his first week
hiding,
behind the drawers in the back of the classroom.
it took a while, but he finally
wrote his story down in a poem
and told us he’d share it
at the final show.
a week before the final show
danny goes missing
and we all know where
even though the administration
won’t tell me.
i am told to give my students Fs
for the days they walked out for justice
F is for justice
and i know that’s not phonetically sound
but real justice doesn’t play by the rules
because the rules put a bird in a cage
and the rules told me to fail that bird
for not singing anymore.
the thing is
i’ve got a lot of missing students
students i’ve never met
students who never came in to class
students who can’t wake up in the morning
for first hour
and though i don’t know them
I am told
to give them Fs
like felonies, fears, and faults
when i know
an F won’t get a kid out of bed in the morning
an F won’t bail a kid out of prison
an F won’t make a kid want to live
i give them incompletes
because we all deserve
to know we can try again
and do better next time.
i give them incompletes
because they don’t deserve
to have their bad days
permanently recorded
as failed futures.
most importantly,
i give them incompletes because
well
aren’t we all incomplete?
and isn’t this fight incomplete?
and isn’t this system incomplete
when any one student
could ever be considered
a failure?
the rules come down from their
ivory tower into my basement and tell me
i need to start failing my students -
not all of them, just the ones
i’ve been giving incompletes.
when i ask why, they say
without Fs, As are worthless
other people’s success is built
on the backs of failing students.
i think about my failing students -
two weeks into class, i finally get the courage
to tell them my pronouns -
a shy student asks to do the same,
tells us, “my name max. i use
he/him/his pronouns.”
it takes the class a few weeks
to catch up with the news, but they do.
a few weeks later, max goes missing
i get a call from his mom, she says
“abby is in the hospital. she
tried to hurt herself.”
i am told to give max an F
but isn’t that what everyones already done
checked that F box
on his birth certificate
his student id
his hospital intake form
and i don’t want to add to that list
when he probably already equates
F for failure
at being recognized in the mirror.
and i think about danny
danny showed up a month late
out of prison, and spent his first week
hiding,
behind the drawers in the back of the classroom.
it took a while, but he finally
wrote his story down in a poem
and told us he’d share it
at the final show.
a week before the final show
danny goes missing
and we all know where
even though the administration
won’t tell me.
i am told to give my students Fs
for the days they walked out for justice
F is for justice
and i know that’s not phonetically sound
but real justice doesn’t play by the rules
because the rules put a bird in a cage
and the rules told me to fail that bird
for not singing anymore.
the thing is
i’ve got a lot of missing students
students i’ve never met
students who never came in to class
students who can’t wake up in the morning
for first hour
and though i don’t know them
I am told
to give them Fs
like felonies, fears, and faults
when i know
an F won’t get a kid out of bed in the morning
an F won’t bail a kid out of prison
an F won’t make a kid want to live
i give them incompletes
because we all deserve
to know we can try again
and do better next time.
i give them incompletes
because they don’t deserve
to have their bad days
permanently recorded
as failed futures.
most importantly,
i give them incompletes because
well
aren’t we all incomplete?
and isn’t this fight incomplete?
and isn’t this system incomplete
when any one student
could ever be considered
a failure?
credits
license
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about
Nico! Colorado Springs, Colorado
i'm a genderqueer spoken word poet that lives in colorado springs. i write identity stuff, body stuff, brain stuff. i write about the things that make me get out of bed in the morning.
discography
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Aug 2016
contact / help
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