If the World was a Poem: Spoken Word Poetry

Written and filmed by: Hannah Flores
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This poem is dedicated to the people of the world
I know a place
That's always moving
Where there's something in the air that makes sleep useless

If The World Was A Movie
You would see so many people walk by
And never stop to notice
As if they are just extras
But what if I told you
That they are the movie
We are the movie

If the world was a stop motion film
Each picture would be a moment frozen in time
Yet still moving forward
Like bad internet service
Claustrophobia ensues as we quarantine ourselves with our own fear
Thursday March 12, 2020 was the first day that I felt trapped in my own hand washing
Turning the Happy Birthday song into a timer
Dehydrating my sense of hope and my skin all at the same time

While some of us are basking in our privilege
Of stockpiling things
Not out of need, but our own fear
If the world was a movie
It would expose how those who bought wipes to resell and made $100,000 off of innocent, scared people
And how those who bought enough food to feed a village
Still look down on those fleeing war and famine with no Walmart to turn to
And it would tell them that any phobia is a toxin in itself

Or maybe it's a silent film
In a world where you see colour but everything feels black and white
With 5 million children out of school right now you'd think it would be louder
Where I realize that by the time this poem is finished, all of my stats will be outdated
And there are so many voices screaming at you from all directions
Saying everything and nothing that you want to hear
To the point where your native tongue sounds like a foreign language
To the point where you drown out this flood until it turns to white noise
Then nothing at all

What if the film was a black screen
All the lights, cameras and actions are out
Sun extinguished and stars left to wander

Smothered by a red sea of businesses dropping like flies
Where we’re all left in the dark

But this grey area
Sets a backdrop for colour
A home for sun-spilled faces

If the world was a movie
I’d kaleidoscope the technicolor stories that we hold behind our eyes
How we build bridges, write books and try not to hold grudges
The heart of a cosmopolitan among the cosmos
We are nothing short of stars
Each mind a new kit of lenses to take different angles on the same avenues
The key is our delicate balance of thinking independently together
Threads of streets woven into grand tapestries

If the world was a film
It would have no beginning, middle or end
It would just play on
Imagine all of this
Translated by the cry of time moving through us
But COVID-19 would only last for one frame

If I made a movie about the world
I would tell you not to socially distance ourselves from each other's humanity

A documentary of diversity
Where divided nations
Form a unifying pulse
An involuntary muscle with conscious intent
Of not cancelling hope
Not cancelling love
Not cancelling life
Employing the trillions of cells in our bodies to keep moving

Cinema can be the most beautiful fraud in the entire world
But what if I told you that this is real
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What if I made a movie about the world
My beloved home
Where the extras avoiding cracks in the sidewalks
Become the stars
Beacons of light in falls of Broadway darkness
Where we are the movie