❝I Am Somebody❞ an #adjunct poem for #NAWD
…inspired by Jesse Jackson’s rendition of “I Am – Somebody” written in the 1950s by Reverend William Holmes Borders, Sr., senior pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church and civil rights activist in Atlanta, GA.

 
I May be an Adjunct! I May be on Welfare!

I am Somebody.

I can’t afford suits so I pick them up at the Salvation Army,

My clothes are different

I Am Somebody!

I speak a different language, but I must be respected, protected, never rejected!

I may owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the banks because I was educated

To teach a very detailed and important discipline

I am Somebody!

I may every day worry about students carrying guns into the hall,

I Am Somebody!

I may need a way to stay warm this month because I can’t pay my heating bill

I Am Somebody!

I may have no pension, no money in the bank, no credit rating

I am Somebody.

I may have no health insurance because I don’t get enough classes assigned to pay for it,

I am Somebody

My degrees are sitting on my wall staring back at me

I am Somebody!

I may love teaching period, and spend hours writing my thoughts and deleting them later.

I am Somebody!

I have a child or children who needs me to be strong

I am Somebody

I have to stand in line and get turned down for food stamps with them in my arms.

I am Somebody.

I may get my credit card turned down for gas on the way back from my teaching job

I am Somebody.

I must be respected, protected, never rejected.

I May Be an Adjunct

But I am Somebody.

Lydia Snow
Feb 23, 2015 10:40 am