Together we sat silent at a traffic light, vibrations of travels under the foot of an after-site
Had it afforded the culture wits to make a major change
To move from the city to suburbias exits where the edges are less frayed
Blessed with less madness
Given to more space
But as the envious green shown white eyes of a head on
Collisions of reality
I realize the muses of the metropolis watch over us
Prodding advancements in the language
With a nod
Continuing the movements of those songs long sung in our youth
When young men were royalty, raised to stand head strong
To which we still claim loyalty
I am in love with a woman I call clarity, flirt with connection and lay it down casually
But I play it cool to woo her
A player never lets on

Common place we masquerade in the light, when aligned right
Inspiration shows a fairer view
There's a canvas in every staircase
Documenting the basic human life
Unbearable solace comes unannounced
Resurrection of real talk floods the avenue
Old Bloods make room for the young ones
Knowing every generation counts
Commotion may pause
I'm allowed
To walk through
I lean when I pass because of earned place
It's well known, when writing
I'm consumed
Lyrical I deliver truths open minded in a closed space
Spiritual
Been the reborn force in a puddle
Saw my reflection unfazed in a monsoon
Outlined the losses with chalk, talk about those lost like legends
When in reality that is peace we are all due
Outstretched arms traced
A border on spilt maroon
Tear jerkers that flinch, when you're hesitant
Stone face for a moment
Then they got you
On the surface a milestone to gain an inch of momentum
If a green leaf speaks of a future
You better plant a seed somewhere protected from the weather and concrete
I have never seen a stone bloom

Tough to let go of the lessons I learned in the ghetto, my grandma taught me city water is tainted, filled with the heavy metals
Don't let them see you wilted, go out and get a filter
They try to slow your education
Used to watch her thumb through the pages, used to swear by the paper
TVs lie she said, she didn't care for how they talk
The **** they pettle
Pretty foreign dialect from where she came from
She used to say baby, the sweetest juice
Get squeezed from the fruits of your labor
Hate to hear me talk about a rap career
Asked me how one dreams of being caught under a label?
Independence is a strength
Ain't **** to fear
Besides, in her day real poetry was soft on her ears
She'll still go to church on Sundays
Barely a believer
Comes home and will drink you under the table
She might stumble to bed, but she still hold her head high and graceful
I often woke to piano when the bills weren't paid
We'd read sheet music-by the candle light
No excuse for ****** grades
Life is about hope
She won't stand to see that vandalized
She told me she really hate rap
What if it help me feed my kids that she can get down with that

I own my indelible indifference to authority
My world is beautiful
The scenery is ugly, you have no idea what the struggle cost me
Got me a dented identity
And addicted to legacy
I think long on a distant father
In order
To promise my children more I walk them the long way to the farmers market
For fresher products
Past Harvard
Saying never let you're position be handed down, see I'm invested
Impressions made like breath on the library window
Watch them future doctors
You can either run ****
Or work for them, you can earn it
Or beg for the dollar
That don't make no sense
Like I said
I take very serious care with my hard earned intelligence
It's not in every soul that I invest

There is a portrait
Sketched in aerosol color of blood, gently preaching love
Every day I've passed it asking myself where it was
Years later
A local artist calls himself Truth, added a dove
Mostly white except grey letters that say
"No dreams left behind, no hopes shunned"
I am not much more than the legacy or signage saying welcome to the 6-1-7, peace to Huntington
We are where little more than where we're coming from
I always figured if I paint a picture
Call it poetry
When I needed a rhythm
I'd listen to the avenue grind and hum
You can title it a documentary, but the thought alone reminds me of a homie who said you are buried beneath hate only
He moved away to Jamaica Plain with his lady
She a trap queen
He called it escaping, all I really saw for enlightenment was tail lights
And I was never one to run
Asked if me and my family would follow
I said I would holla soon
Haven't spoke in some time
Funny to find
The red letters are bold as ever
Even as the walls surrounding dulled
The avenue still grinds to the familiar tune

I don't dabble in quotes undeniably fresh I broke ground when I wrote
Fault lines leak from the throat
Deep in the flesh
Scar the soul
But still take the fifth over the *******
I can smell where I sit
Some expressions shouldn't be expressed
Lit some inscents, crack a window
The world ****** me inseminated artificial, so the room reeks of ***
You could of warned me before you came though
I was asked why I don't get a vasectomy, I replied
Why fix what ain't broke?
If a saint was to lie..would that be considered a blessing in disguise?
Pencil pushed in my direction, my mortgage was late
Ain't that something
Too broke to buy myself an alibi
Experience tells me it's coming
But it's not midnight yet
I got a right to reserve the light like my sky was cursed
The dusk set or crept
I forget what broke through first
I wasn't born I was invented in temperature melted steel from a chariot let it carry you you could carry it farther
If I had a father
Had it been different, had I had some kind of appeal
That's a variable
I was a controlled sample
But out of it
Dangerous beyond a point I can compare it to
Vultures circled the intolerance
I was not acknowledged but taught the strength in silence
I never listen, that's the science
In one ear and out the other
My mother the worlds biggest hypocrite
Once said, never ask for more than you can handle
Then failed to commit
And still delivered my crew of baby brothers
She looked me in the eye
She walked away saying I tried
Makes me wonder
If a saint was to lie..would that be considered a blessing in disguise?

My man and another who was once a friend to me but ended up an enemy over complications
Used to be my brother
We were conversating on our past court cases and long lost lovers
As one does as days pass
Some we recall and others fictitious, for entertainment basis
It was negative now looking back
After all
We came to the conclusion the only education we embrace is
The knowledge of freedom due to time incarcerated
The only lesson we can grasp
Primitive thoughts lack direction
Meaning, they **** at navigation
Sail a moment of hope into a masked land mass
And ignorance blames the placement
Blood always runs thicker than water, even in the rivers that rose to flood
Took the path of some resistance
You always fear loss, if you've ever lost what you love
So don't break cypher with negativity that's the metaphorical equivalent of a cashed blunt
Keep it real
Keep the front porch comforts close to you're heart
Revered
The only passions we lose contact with are the ones that we conceal