Over The Top

 Wanna loosen your grip now? 
 Let go a little bit? 
 I’ve got the point
 I’ve been manipulated
 Brainwashed
 Taken over
 Taken down
 Just taken
 Bought out
 I’ve gotten your point
 Isn’t it time to retreat
 You’ve got everyone bowing at your feet
 America
 you’ve got the girls 
 And you’ve got the boys
 And you’ve got the teenagers
 They’re your toys
 And you have everyone else 
 You’ve got them singing out 
 The pledge of allegiance loud and strong
 You’ve got them patriotic 
 You’ve got them forgetting
 What’s wrong 
 You’ve got them
 You’ve got them trapped 
 You’ve got them tied up 
 In the religious rite
 In the media’s message 
 Telling them how to fight
 You’ve got them 
 You’ve got them 
 So can’t you let go 
 We’re already scarred enough 
 I’m scarred enough though
 And god knows
 We’re scared enough 
 We’ve got enough of the world
 Telling us no
 Telling us how
 Telling us where to go
 We’ve got enough to deal with 
 To battle 
 So why don’t you let go now
 Let us relax
 Let us turn off the tv’s 
 Let us burn the beauty magazines
 Let us find new beauty 
 In the funeral pyre 
 Of modern make up 
 And size 2 fashions
 And the image of the Barbies 
 On the cover of everything 
 Let someone make it up 
 To us 
 Or let us be
 So we can make it up to ourselves
 Let us out of the schools 
 To be loud 
 To be us 
 Right or wrong
 Whichever we choose to be at the time   

 Wanna loosen your grip now? 
 Or are you bent on our destruction 
 Wanting us as slaves 
 Living 
 In the “home of the brave” 
 What have we got to show for it
 For the years we’ve lived already
 We’ve got bottles of dried nail polish
 We’ve got scars on our wrists
 We’ve got broken hearts
 Broken dreams
 Broken self esteems
 We’ve got a shattered
 EVERYTHING
 What have we got to show 
 For these years on this planet
 What can we put in our scrapbook 
 Of life
 A photo from an endless
 Futile
 Beauty pageant 
 The evidence of your grip 
 On us 

 So wanna let us go now 
 Loosen up 
 Give us some slack 
 Some leeway
 Give us something to work with 
 Or if nothing else
 A rope to hang ourselves with
 Either will do 
 But please
 We gotta have one 
 Or the other  

 Loosen up now 
 And we’ll show you something
 We’ll build something
 We’ll change something
 We’ll become something new 
 Something brighter
 Something bigger
 Something more brilliant
 Than the shop windows 
 Of New York City
 Or the shimmer 
 Of the newest color of lipstick 
 From some top make up line
 We’ll fight
 For our own revolution 
 A rebellion 
 Our personal evolution  

 Loosen up your grip 
 You’re bruising us
 We don’t need any new scars
 We get those everyday
 From the television
 From school 
 From the mass media 
 It’s a lasting rule 
 We get these scars 
 From every person we meet 
 Every admonishing conservative
 That we meet on the street
 Every time they make something 
 Break
 Inside of us 
 Every time they make us cry
 Every time they make us think
 That we might want to just die 
 We’re getting a new wound
 Not submitting to you
 And drawing out the revolution 
 In the bright red blood you find there 
 Because while everyone is practically indifferent
 We’re the last of the ones
 that really do care 

 Do I sound optimistic 
 Like a naïve little girl 
 With grand aspirations
 That are over the top 
 Being ms. Drama
 Screaming 
 Grand exaggerations 
 I might
 I might be
 But does it matter
 Not really 
 What matters 
 Is that to me
 It isn’t over the top 
 Its something we can do
 Its something we will do
 If you’ll only let go 
 Because the way things are 
 Just aren’t right
 And we’re preparing to fight 
 Against the hands that stop us 
 That imposes those bull shit 
 Boundaries 
 Those gender qualms
 The racism
 The prejudices
 We’ve grown past those
 We’re smarter
 Than to give in that insanity 
 And it doesn’t matter 
 If its over the top 
 Because over the top 
 IS ME. 

(Okay, I'm leaving right now to go to a coffeehouse and read this at an open mic. night. go me!)

~Jasmine

• Jasmine. . . Wow. That made shivers run up and down my back, it made tears come to my eyes. that's fucking amazing. ~jennyrose
• Fuck Yes! You go girl! Amen to Jennyrose! Fucking Amazing! Do you mind if I print this out and give it to people? Damn girl! Good luck with the open mic. -Susannah
• That is. Fucking. Amazing. And I try not to swear much. :) You know... I saw Maya Angelou speak last night, and that poem reminded me of her... the force of it. The strength of it. Jasmine... you are fucking amazing. Remember us when you're famous, will you?

Jazz, girl you know how much I love your writing & when you read this to me on the phone last night, I was just really amazed by it & your way of expressing this stuff is totally awesome! I loveed it! And you are gonna read this at camp cuz it toally kicks all as, girl! Rock on! ~Selena