I've got coconut oil on my face
Sometimes its easiest
To start by stating the obvious
You sent me some sweet tulips
That were fresh from the garden
Picked apart by decipherable content
If I tried to comb your hair
I'd tend to each knot.

We kick up the dust with our heels
In this nation we so seek to change
But we are careful and clever
With our rock steady gaze
I compared us to oceans
What seems like the other day
But really was just the night
I almost knocked you down with
The door that no longer swung
On its hinges or buzzed
As an element of the pavement.

That door, I seem to be holding within
My soul my ever whisper
I could wake up next to you
In your black bed
See how the shadows hit you so eloquently
My lips not kissing yours
For fear of a surrender that might
Cover us all up in pitiful red damage
So I hug and give love
Because I do, love you.

I thought this looked like the inside of your head
For a moment there I thought we might develop in time
That you might wake up one day
And just choose me
But as time echoes and creeks
We both look away from the news in unison
You make the raps
I'll capture it with my eyes.

And thats whats here
Thats whats at stake
You looked so beautiful
Lights exploding behind you
I voice recorded so much
Because if I could I would bury it all in a hand basket
Trying to capture and save the rawness
That we see through our binoculars.

I'm sorry that a gloom surrounds you
I see it cough up venom
With nimble hands I fight it off for us
But we are no us
As you entangle us with words and love
I always wanted you to write about me.

I didn't mean to leave to hurt you
Its just what I do.
For now.

Whiskey faded me all day
Still feeling like a bucket of possibility
You are at your best when covered
In splatter paint.

I looked my DNA back up tonight
I spit in a tube because I wanted answers
I discovered a message from a man named Eugene Jackson
Our trees align
He's a strong black man.

I don't know what I'm made up of
As folk deny we're all interconnected
All breathing one vivid breath
We shiver and we quiver
'Cuz you know what we gotta do.

Just turn it into art.