New Heights, New Lights | Teen Ink

New Heights, New Lights

April 15, 2022
Brendan-Diesel-Zankowski BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

 Send me back to my country
Where people work daily and can’t keep from hungry
Ancestors traveled for vacancies for money
We come with no harm, just a new life for me
And some new rights for me
And some new heights for me
They say that I can’t see, it’s the new lights for me
 
There’s no time to watch
As we sit back for a min another life gets lost
Footage of these crimes getting harder to watch
Seen an elderly couple get hit by their block
Xiaojie tan taking a walk
And in a moment’s time, she turned right got shot
 
And you know we are never close to the virus
So why are y’all blaming the thing?
Y’all just looking for a reason to hate
6 thousand miles away from our state
We not more dangerous then y’all, so no need to separate
 
Said that I can’t see, it’s just all these lights for me
Gonna take this one for me
Promise I can lead
So much culture thrives in me
As we stand, Asian army
 
And it often seems
Like those who got hurt be the same ones
Inflicting pain, they convert
It’s the victim turning into attackers
The pain grows out of their chest, up into others
 
And as minorities, we fight in the same pit too
No point waging wars over split issues
Your family’s going to miss you, and mine as well
So will things ever change, only time will tell
 
I eat rice every day
And I can’t drive straight
Yellow-faced
I kung-fu kick the way out of these gates
You hate me Yes you hate me, and I see that it’s evident
Racist ways sometimes change, I hope you getting it
 
Shoot me now shoot me now
But millions stand by in my gaze, can’t hold us down
Thinking one will end us
Let me lay it to you straight
You hate me, but I’m proud of my race, let’s stop Asian hate


The author's comments:

During the pandemic, I found myself cut off from my friends, my extracurricular activities, and school became this ankle weight, chaining me to my desk. To add insult to injury, my grandfather contracted Covid, was in a coma for a month, and eventually passed away just before Christmas. It was a very dark and confusing time for me. Some days I didn’t know what to feel or think and other times, if I had a moment of happiness, I would feel guilty for feeling this way.  So, to block it all out, I turned to experimenting with and creating music, because listening to music always calmed me down and gave me focus. I became quite proficient in FL Studio and created some interesting beats that would give my feelings an outlet. Once I could release some of these feelings, I was able to sort out my thoughts and came to an outpouring of ideas in the form of lyrics.  This particular song I wrote when I was particularly frustrated over a world that targeted Asians to find someone to blame for the virus instead of working together to eradicate this disease. 


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