art is

Art is courage. 

Art is nights tearing at your hair 
because it doesn't sound right 
it doesn't look right. 

Art is stained hands and 
stained clothes and paper stained 
with tears. 

Art is pulling out pieces of 
your heart and dashing them out 
across paper, 
hoping for a good result. 

Art is bleeding fingers 
from practicing for hours, 
is bleary eyes and worn out 
throats. 

Art is pushing until
something breaks, 
until you either give up 
or keep going until your body
bends to the shape you want it to. 

Art is daring to speak the truth, 
is getting locked up because 
people weren't ready for the truth yet, 

Art is challenging a dictator with 
nothing but a microphone, 
a paper and a pen, 
and yet making them look so fragile, 
so afraid. 

Art is forbidden words splashed
across concrete walls and alleys, 
is a silent revolution. 

Art is forbidden passions and 
beautiful things hidden under covers 
because the place you live in 
could never hold your love. 

Art is turning the bodies 
splayed out on the street of your hometown 
into a battle cry for 
people tired of being beaten down. 

Art is the highest offense in  
countries full of locked up minds, 

Art is the salt we taste when 
we cry, 

Art  is the love of a generation, 

Art is tear gas and police batons, 

Art is opening eyes after they've been 
stitched shut, 

Art is facing an army with no gun, 

Art is love, 

Art is life, 

Art is courage.