Poets

Poets
Ignite my fire
Set my world ablaze with carefully laid metaphors that detonate like land mines
Make me wanna change minds
And run lyrically rampant like I'm flying through stop signs
Cause even Aries can have their fire snuffed out
With watered down similes that give no air to my imagination
See I can blow out CO2 but I need a spark
To create the right chemical reaction that forces my pen to paper
To scribe pieces about my uncle with cerebral palsy whose spirit only comes alive on Sunday mornings
And his vocal cords never strain as he sings Glory Glory Hallejuah Since I Laid My Burdens Down
And angry piece for the racist elementary school coach
As red in his face as he was on his neck
Who held my best friend up by his chest and said
"Don't you TOUCH that WHITE boy!"
My ex who taught me insecurity
My mom who taught me to believe in me
My cousin who taught me that smoking weed
Doesn't make you a hippie
Or a hopeless junkie
Because God dripped the ability to save lives on our tongues
So if you can't inspire me
Someone who was born with granite fingernails
Black and blue ink coursing through my veins
Then let's just call a press conference now so we can retire your name
And your pen
Or just save your poetry for close and family
EVERYBODY wants to make a difference but
NOBODY expects to only have 3 minutes and 10 seconds to do it in
But we revel in it like country pigs and fresh slop
So get on this stage and make it hot
Leave a wake of charred microphones and collapsed venues behind
And if you can't do that
Stop wasting my time

Love Hard

*so, parts of this are meant to be sung ala Lauryn Hill's When It Hurts So Bad, which will be pointed out by asterisks, so you probably won't get the full feeling, but the words hit hard*

*I loved real, real hard once
And it made me want to give her everything
And I mean EVERYTHING
Things stopped making sense and started
Making sense
Music - the gateway to my soul but
Ain't no way all those R&B singers realize the power in their words
I'd shed hailstorm tears of pain
If I fell asleep dreaming of water in your eyes
Simply said *Lady I would cry for you tonight
It frightened me to the core
But I learned that not all scary things are bad
I learned that not all scary things are bad
Blatant robbery
*She stole my heart, like a thief in the night
But my senses are heightened
My nails are longer, hair is stronger
A Pluralized Princess
And it makes me want to give you my body
I mean GIVE YOU MY BODY
In a decorative clay pot
An evergreen hybrid growin' and flourishin' watered only by your devotion
A photosynthetic symbol of our connection
Please
Call me Poison Ivy
And let me find ways to sprout leaves from my fingertips
And flower buds from my taste buds
*I loved real real hard once
Too hard
I wanna give you the world
Shaped into a Princess cut pearl
Engrave your name on the oceans
Carve your smile on land
All its creatures would bow to you
And you would reign supreme
Set in 14-carat eternity
*Gave up my power, I'm existing for you
*But whoever knew, the voodoo you do
Magic shone through
Love spun like the colorful whirls of a battery-operated pen
Riding the vibrations and amazingly staring at the different hues
Reds, yellows, greens and blues
A kaleidoscope of indescribable affection
Ever-changing, evolving as we revolve around each other
Faster and faster never to come down hard
Cause see, love
Isn't supposed to be easy
It's gotta be hard
Hard enough to break ridiculous habits
Past connections and longstanding protective walls
So yes
I'm
loving
real
real
hard
The way that I'm supposed to

Quiet Storm

I am not the calm before the storm
I am the silence between the thunder and lightning
Saturated with fear and anticipation
Maybe that's why you underestimate me, forget about me
But please trust me, my lightning strikes justly
Igniting blazes so wide there'll be no time for help
My fire makes it so you can't outrun death
I close mouths with sharp phrases
Scared to lash back at the master who feeds them
I knock out teeth with soft smiles and tender gazes
But see you didn't know I carry hidden weapons
I sever forked tongues, get 'em ready for consumption with my trusty
Razor blade
Devour 'em with my one-time use fork that always seems to transform
Giving a fuck you to the dissenters then restoring to true form
And you
You must be descended from Eve
Ignoring the rules, fueled by your own selfish greed
That snake musta painted you green
Cuz jealousy and envy seeps from your pores like pubescent pimples popped
Scarring a once beautiful spirit that your pride turned evil
Consider these words holy water
I know it burns but its a needed operation cuz
Only bitches talk in innuendo and metaphors in regular conversation
I save that shit for when I'm behind this mic
So if you got something to say, you can come talk to this dyke

3

I know who I am
Who I was and who I will be
And that fact drives me like a brand new car off the lot
Smooth easy and with no worries
My life was marked by stress-filled flurries of doubt, desperation and deceit
Crumbling under the weight of 3
It took some time but now I see
That all I needed was a little time with I, myself and me
A triad of power and self-awareness
It's why I only eat with forks
You can't get me to look into the distorted view of a spoon and try to find myself
My reflection upside down
Confusing my psyche and putting me in a permanent head stand
Sending the blood rushing to my brain and making me dizzy
Unconscious
I release your hold on me
Break my glasses in two because these bitches hinder me from seeing the truth
Wearing man's perception of reality on my face like a fashion statement
Screaming I don't know you
Or who I am
I'm transitioning like lenses led by the sun and God's raw energy
and I know who I am
Who I was and who I will be
My destiny became clear to me like stars in a dark, polluted sky
Like 3 stars in Orion's belt
O the simplicity
I smile through my childlike eyes and hum a tune that's dear to me
3 is a magic number, Yes it is
It's a magic number

Fantasy World

It's warm in your world of lollipops and candy canes
Beautiful daughters who bear your name
Your likeness and your claim to fame
See but its a fuckin' shame
Your world isn't reality
Because here
on Earth
Ex-wives move on
That first son you wanted is born without a slong
Irresponsibility forces you to sing the same 'ol song of
It wasn't me
And still you decide to spread your seed
Let baby mama do all the harvesting
But you want credit when it lasts through all four seasons
A game of hide and go seek
Where you disappear in the darkness, promising brief blinks
But glueing my eyes shut so I couldn't peek
As you took care of the family three blocks up the street
See its bright in your world
Where the sun doesn't set
And broken promises are easy to forget
Four to six hours is quality time yet
That's some shit I can't accept because
Your world isn't reality
Here
On Earth
There's a big difference between daddy and father
Standing behind a pulpit can still make you a follower
And if you're not gonna listen to comprehend, then I won't even bother
I make it plain
I am me
Reverend I'm not made in your image, I'm made in He
Even if we share the same eyes and cheeks
You're not gonna sell that bullshit to me
I need you to see
That your world of daisies and roses
Is full of minds that remain forever closed
Oblivious to truth, deception and lies
Because you choose to dine on superficial alibis
But you vomit whenever I ask Why
See the reality is
You weren't there
And you don't wanna be there
Cuz you like your warm world
Of lollipops and candy canes
Beautiful daughters who bear your name
Your likeness and your claim to fame
But see its a fuckin' shame
That you won't come out and play

Ode

There are not many times in life when you are reborn
But I was
Baptized in the eternal fire of poetic waters
Brought to the promised land by anointed saints touched by the hands of God
Who also blessed them with golden tongues
I was lucky
To have seen the light at such a young age
And to be cultivated by such talented mentors and teachers
Who passed down their knowledge, their passion to this youth
Their methods may have been uncouth
Speaking of zombies, feet, breath, wars, sex-hungry politicians, tangents and butterflyz
But the message got through
And on every stop my journey it became clearer to me
What my true purpose is
An urban Jasmine climbing the palace walls to reach her destiny
Guided along the way by a quirky cast of characters
Because I couldn't do it all by myself
I needed Him and you
So to Coco Fire, Alley Cat, Suga Sweet
Tony Rich, Lord Abraham, Seth and DEEP
Crow, Christopher-Michael, Mr. Nsatiable and Shake
PS, Dough, UN and Scorp
I say thank you for providing a sturdy safety net
Something to believe in when reality had me down
And providing me a lifeline
Cause spoken word saved my life

Back in the Day

Remember back in the day when you used to eat whatever your friend told you to
I had a friend who polished off a huge bush of honeysuckle flowers because he was CONVINCED
They tasted like honey
In its purest form
And in our purest form our logic was
"Well, he ain't dead
He's stronger than me and runs faster than me."
So you did it.
You closed your eyes and ate that daisy because
It's just a flower right?
Your diet consisted of sour pickles with jolly ranchers jammed in the middle
Big bags of red Kool-Aid that never failed to turn your fingers colors
Oatmeal treats and windmill cookies
Fruit Roll-Ups wrapped around thumbs to suck like 10-year-old babies
And you never got sick
You'd cry if your mom told you you couldn't go outside
And now
We are so paranoid that we wouldn't go outside if quarters rained from the sky
Because the dents they would leave in your cars reminded you of acid rain
People are so afraid of the littlest things
We tend to believe the rich folks
My friend is CONVINCED that he has plastic deposits in his body
Because Oprah said
That when you reuse disposable water bottles, you ingest some amounts of plastic depending on the level used
Well I don't know about you
But I WANT plastic
Our immune systems would be impenetrable if everybody
just ate
a little
plastic
Studies come out everyday saying things you used to do as a child probably brings on cancer
Cats prevent heart attacks
Too much sunlight is bad for your skin
Seems like scientists have us picking daises from our memories, making us hypochondriacs of what we used to be
I fear them more than I fear the media
Because scientists can use them big words, confuse you and shit
To keep you CONVINCED that that scientific bullshit is truth
Surgically removing our youth
But I will continue to swallow orange seeds
Hoping fruit will sprout from my ear lobes like citrus jewelry
Because I hate going under the knife
Operations give me too much strife
And I like living my life
Like its back in the day and I'm eating
Whatever my friend told me to