5 Pointz

we wuz celebratin

40 years of Hip Hop

at 5 Pointz

dashing tags

reclaiming the

lost land

speaking for a

community of peeps

routed from their

last stand

making statements

about remembering

tellin stories

about ourselves

giving the drab

dead industrial

sarcophagi a

a face lift

freeing the

entombed

mummies

to let em

walk with

the living

again

seein things

in a new light

reciting our

biographies

writing an epic

autobiography

splashed across

3D murals

spoken in the

lexicon of

gobsmack

multicolored

neon graffiti

testifying to

the ages with

our urban

hieroglyphs

the symbols of

life in the hood

may history be our

witness to aromas

rising from cracked

pavements teaming

with bodegas,

public projects and

store front fantasies

played out in all its

grueling detail

on the corner of

walk don’t walk

them snaps

real down home

expressions

of real people

until some

capitalist

*********

his pockets filled

with low interest

money

whitewashed

it away

he thinks he

owns the

5 Pointz

he thinks

he can

erase our

memories

with a gallon of

Sherwin Williams

he thinks

he owns our

perdido

graffito

and is well

in his rights

to launder our

epiphanies over

with the bland

tag of privilege

he thinks his

dollar bills

can buy

we raised this

place from

the dead

that old warehouse

where men and women

once earned a paycheck

was murdered by

Michael Milken

and his posse of well

heeled predators

busy leveraging

livelihoods by

offshoring them

to Third World

plantations

transforming

the natives into

wage slaves

tagging this

strange alchemy

progress

now this

latest incarnation of

Morley’s Ghost stalking

Bloomberg’s Metropolis

haunts the neighborhoods

with a wrecking ball

of entitlement

razing our hood

to build soulless

high rises where

they'll warehouse

dead people

ginned up

on pilates,

chai tea and

elevating

themselves

through life

scoring the

latest fab

yoga gear

on the

urban outfitters

website

the frackers

are gobbling

the land

strip miners are

gnashing away

at the mountains

now the predators

are eating our art

always famished

never satiated

the beast gnaws

away at its

**** scattering

the bones of

of the living

but this

half assed

midnight

whitewash

will never stand

already images

of the holy ghosts

scrawled onto

the Wailing Walls

of 5 Pointz are

bleeding through

the veneer of a

landlords greed

and as the

future tenants

of the proposed

highrise columbarium

snooze away the night

dreaming of leading roles

in star studded schemes

we’ll be taggin

the streets

reciting our

righteous presence

until our last dying

aerosol breath

escapes our

paint stained

hands

Public Enemy:

Fight the Power

Oakland

11/20/13

jbm

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