Category: Listening Sessions, Personal Stories, Poverty News & Policy Updates, The Safety Net
February 07th, 2022
Liam Thomas is a 9th grader at Design Science Middle College High School in Fresno. He also takes classes at Fresno City College. He is one of 4 students at Compton College, Laney College, and Fresno City College who won a prize in EPIC’s inaugural Student Ideas Contest.
Haggardly, intricately covered in the woes of life
Seeking creature comforts of safety, shelter and food
Dodging the hierarchical order of society’s strife
It’s hard to get on the right path, in the right mood
When you have holes in your sock
When your tummy aches
When every door has a lock
When all life wants to do is take
It’s hard to find the fighter in you
It’s hard to keep your cool
It’s hard to know what to do
Pull yourself up by the bootstraps they say
Find the strength to overcome
Don’t let your life fall into a state of array
Don’t let it make you numb
But it’s hard to find the fighter in you, to keep your cool, to know what to do
Poverty is no joke, it’s easy to lose hope, to soak in your woes and mope
Clothes tattered
Head downcast
Future shattered
How long will this last?
Somewhere, somehow, from deep within, even though this is how it’s always been
I need to find the strength to overcome, to not be numb
To not lose hope, to not soak in my woes and mope
To find the fighter in me, to defeat poverty