Seeking Excuses To Exist Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

To set the record straight,
I do not solicit long winded debates...
Regarding my point of view or experiences,
I have had to witness to establish...
A thought process that is my own.

Nor am I on a mission to prove,
I am a Black man capable of mental diversity.
To be a Black man and 'not' have mental diversity,
In a country that affords at least the opportunity...
To acknowledge it,
Is a preference for that Black man to stay limited.
I am not that Black man seeking excuses to exist.