I face the neighborhood that took
My mother's life,
The same one that I watched turn
Many cousins into ****** addicts,
I burn but I am not consumed:
I write the pain on a slab of Jade
Watching a fleet of dead roll by,
The names will stand among the tombstones
While in mute heavily grieving the nocturnal,
I am filled with the eternal present.
The memory is a flame
On open wounds,
I am thirsty,
But there is no water......
Time has done its hardest on me,
My blood courses more deliberate,
My teeth at a grind,
I want to fling all the bullets back,
Take the knife from Victor,
Out of his animal belly,
Out of his organism belly,
His human belly;
Life is an ancient gesture
And the hood is the very survival
Of those unfit for society's expectations.
I am Westside,
And I am still here writing
Away all that was taken,
The words plunge itself like
The needle I took from my arm,
A perfect drug that never quits you
And courses inward only to grow.
I am Westside and I am still here,
I am Westside and I still cry,
All the pain I drink with beer,
I push a fight and try,
I am Westside,
Glory in the hood,
It wasn't the best side,
But I always knew where I stood,
And still I carry on.
Grew up in a literal warzone, drugs everywhere. A plague of death. And I'm stronger for it.