Strayed from the crowd to try something newand people joked me and called me weird and strangeYet, pretty soon, they were doing it too,but by then, being different was the new crazeLiked natural hair way before Lauryn HillWore dashikis when I was wee smallShopped in thrift shops and fringed all my jeansbefore they were sold in a mallWas into astrology and doing tarot readings when I was 11 in middle schoolNow, every one now has a psychic friend and that chick Cleo from TV is considered"cool"--whateverSo, now, what is next?I still get joked and teased and ostracizedfor being the me that is mebut it seems that the person that I am currently being is a pre-cursor of what is to beSo, with my flagrant individualityand my empathic waysI`ll glorify in what is uniquely my style Knowing that the flock will soon follow suitand make it mainstream afterwhile... Khadijah Ali-Coleman ©2001