Nikki's Poem.

I listened to our granddaughters poem about education and was so impressed by it that I wrote it all out. Here it is as close as I could get. Only a few words didn't come through clearly at the end.

Nikki’s Poem-Feb. 2017

Sunday night and I'm already mourning Monday morning
but I must wake up so early not even the sun is there to comfort me.
No matter how much sleep I get, I am always tired.
Sunlight is nature's alarm clock and I am always deprived,
have to crawl out of bed at 5, is this what it means to be alive?
To start school so early because somebody said so
without consideration for anyone below?
Our brains can't gain knowledge when they aren't awake
maybe that's the goal and their concern is fake.
Makes me think their setbacks no coincidence at all
it's like the education system wants us to fall.
One thing I have learned is that things happen for a reason
there's always someone who benefits from someone’s disadvantages.
So if I see suffering, my first thought is who is profiting from this pain?
And when I look at school with that question in mind,
our misfortune doesn't seem so unintended after all.
I picked a school and the first thing I'm taught
is how to follow the rules without giving them a thought.
You can't wear hats and when that command is questioned,
the student who asked for reasoning is thrown into detention.
Even for bodily functions which you cannot control
I'm required to have a teacher determine if I can go or if I will have to hold.
We learn to stand for pledges but not to stand up for each other
If there's Liberty and Justice for all then why are we left to suffer?
They ring bells at us like we're dogs, training us like Pavlov,
because the only value they see in us is in obedience
and they herd us like bovine through the lunch line
only to be confined by food not worth our time.
Don't be fooled by the hand that feeds you because it's the same hand that kept you hungry,
hungry for knowledge, for freedom, for something more than this.
For quick gratification and instant stimulus
because 45 minute class periods keep us from developing attention spans to realize they've been messing with our minds.
Keeping us focused on our time lines until our willingness to stay in line has given full power to control us.
When you don't question authority, authority doesn't get questioned.
They can continue to hurt us because whose going to give them detention?
They can try to blind us from the truth but.....? but my migraine reminds me only to remain strong.
Resilience is brilliance and we will not fall. No poem can make you ?
I'm not trying to convince those in power to change the system cause I understand money speaks louder than I ever could.
No, my poem is to remind you of the most important lesson that I have ever learned
that knowledge is power, even more than the bottom line or the top dollar.
Our collective intellect is worth more than any coin you could collect
so acquired money can be done with mass intellect
we all need to question, wondering and stop taking ”'Cause I told you so” as an answer
otherwise money wins and no one cares if your life is a disaster
when our brains outnumber their money, then we shall be free
but we must all work together, are you with me?