Thrive – Zayd Aslam '23

We want to do more than just survive here.

To go past speech and words that attack us,

To know that we can prosper, you heed me.

To break the gaze of the fortunate sons.

They feed to eat, men die in simple streets;

They eat to hunger, only to repeat. We die in empty service to no one. The “home.” A battlefield fuels much hatred.

Black Dahlias fill the field with injustice.

Some in full bloom to light above the stars,

Some dead in the red, white, and blue soil.

The prejudice tree bears fruit of terror.

A pomegranate feeds all the children. The oppression based on our detriment.

We want to do more than just survive here.

We strive to bloom not as Strange Fruit,

but as humans.

Art by Belen Suros '22