I've got
The weight of the world
On my shoulders
I carry the Earth on my back
They throw stones at me
But I throw boulders right back
Cold shoulders
Disregard to your hand on your strap
I try to share warmth with this world
But it just makes me colder
I try to show my brothers Love
But I have less and less
As I get older
And they can't come back
I've learned to forgive
And I have no regrets
But I never forget
Nah
Not when it comes to this
You can miss me with that
Consistence
Stay persistent
God, I miss them
Still I stay laid back
Just like the way
The piece always pops
The red sight always dots
And the steady aim always protects
Lessons learned
When you earned your stripes
In the 'jects
I’ve watched so many
Loved ones leave
Like the changing of the colors
In the leaves
That my heart
Has begun to bleed
It feeds the fire in my veins
And the bullets in my teeth
Of which I load into this magazine
That hides the pain
Buried deep beneath
For all the brothers
That I've lost to the streets
Just like Pac
I shed tattooed tears
For multiple peers
And failed to sleep well
For multiple years
So I drank multiple beers
On the night that
I lost all fear
That was the night
I told those cowards
All come near
So they can all come hear
My rifle rear back
As I blast back
And I take the knife
Out of my back
And I stab back
With a pen in my hand
My pen is a bullet
And only the one's
Who didn't have time to think
Before they pulled it
Will ever understand

West Side till I die
I’m down to ride
So call me
When you need
A brother by your side
Where I’m from
We’re not promised twenty one
There are people dying
Because the Devil shoots for fun
If he points his gun to my face
I won’t be the one to run
He’ll have to look me in my eyes
I don’t expect him to shy
We all know the Devil doesn’t cry
Though one day he may
I'm not the one to say
I just see the pain
Inside the soulless
Inside the broken
Hollow vessel
That erupts
From hollow metal
He has no emotions
So he shows no love
He came from a broken home
Where he never received a hug
The only security he ever found
Was beneath the blanket of a drug
Behind the power within a 12 gauge slug
If you don’t know how it feels
When a person murders someone you love
Then you probably don’t know
What it’s truly like to not give a ****
Whosoever glorifies Death
Does not know the game
Burying a brother brings only pain
At the same time
Who am I to lie
When I first came to those
Old crossroads
And found myself
Fashioning a makeshift
Cross made of bones
I didn’t beg
I didn’t cry
Truly, I
Shed the last of my tears
For those who are already free to fly
He can take my life
But he could never take
What’s inside
That was the day
I asked myself
Am I
Prepared
To die
Since then
I've learned
To face my demons
That rage within
Deep inside

1.
Magpies sang of an avian astray
Silence soared over the African horizon
Last seen heading Serengeti's way
Off your perch daughter of Poseidon

Pegasus tame ascended heavens sky
Looking for smoke risen or a glisten
Over the Serengeti and Masai
Waning nights turned to
                                        waxing fright lead to
                                                                ­              prayers of frisson

2.
Emergency at Victoria Lake
Three hundred and fifty mile detour
A miner in need, a friend forsake
Beryl, an angel with the cure

Her wings not heroic nor romantic
Just a job at an uncomfortable hour
Lacking of sleep and a dose of frantic
Set sail in the moon, Africa's flower

3.
A life saved and a tank fully nourished
Took on the life of a bird and set course
Peered out and lo and behold
A gleam
a glimmer
a glint
a glisten
a welcomed gift
a green palm among a snow so white
There she lies
Woody's delight
"All Metal"

There once was a boy with chameleon skin,
But his eyes told a story the more he gave in.
There was no hiding, as he caught the attention
Of a helpless little star, stranded in the horizon.
Familiar with the longing, she yearned to fall fast;
However, she couldn’t, held by the hurt of her past,
Until, one day, she saw the twinkle in his eye.
“How could a chameleon outshine the night’s sky?”
She questioned her reality, bound by insecurity,
But dared to lean further into his sincerity.
One night, she tripped, and out of bounds she fell,
But she couldn’t help but dance, mesmerized by gravity’s well.
“How silly I must look” she said, approaching the ground,
But all else disappeared once she heard a familiar sound.
His mindful inquiry, she never knew she needed.
Her heart began to blaze, “that’s all I want,” she pleaded.
She couldn’t help but be inspired by the sight
Of the twinkle in his eyes, refracting her own light.
Lightyears of observation presented a reality,
One she so wanted to feel, but could not really see.
She oft’ recalled the hour that her heart was still,
Remembering his freedom, while he perched upon that hill.
There once was a boy with chameleon skin,
But she loved how he shined as he failed to blend in,
So as she saw his heart, she really hoped he knew
That while the whole world could watch her, she told him
“I see you...”

Venus and a sun-dog in the setting day
a signal that everything's gonna work out,
okay?

botanist at the table behind a wall of succulents
telling me fungi
stuff
and the way they fixate
the soil
for plants to grow and eat
okay.

summertime there are no fields to plow
we're all off anyways
searching for happiness in a kiss
in the promise
of a long-lasting relationship

titanic orders, but that's only a myth
to Smith
maybe not the rest
they're blessed
with that floating boat of happiness

a mean end, that stuff
no means of ending that
they laugh and dance
a quirky ritual
I still cry at the loss
of innocence

goodbye kendred soul,
pass off the torch to a new you,
and bit a sweet adieu
to you,
in the way we both behaved
stumbled our way
out of the garden
and on into the earth.

For what it's worth,
I see he'll be
everything you dreamed
he could.

Hello Chicago
Flat carpet-town of corn meal
steel spears at the northern junction
of Cahokia and some unknown dream

No lillies grow here sir,
no tulip fields
though there are many Dutch
a little up north
Wisconsin, dontcha' know?

Family blood rains through the Chicago river
named of the blood of a slain tribal wonder
wanders
with the roaming buffalo

I sat at the top of Sears
(Willis)
Tower and peered into the foggy distance
and made out the shores of Michigan
through Indiana
the leftover rains of a continental freeze
churned the earth to butter and carved the arteries
and bowels
of today's earthly body

And when we drove in from O'Hare
in the late hours on incessant stoplight highways
counting down the streets
thinking maybe they'll go all the way to
Mississippi
just a long row of
Concrete

I saw the brick tower
of a decrepit Frito-lay plant
where they cooked their corn and potato
into succulent
can't eat just one
little snacks

for the whole of america
to enjoy in backyard barbecues
and convenience stores
and grocery outlets
All across the planet

Now with the trucks they come and go
up to and whizzing past Chicago
on to greener states with greater relief
with hills and lakes and winding streams

Different sections of the sculpture
Cities eroding into the pleasant coasts
quaking and breaking into tiny stones
a monumental David
cracked in the gallery
bird **** corroding the silicates
unpolished and immortal
words

Chicago!
oh you mighty city you
built from sod and sweat and dew
of new morning
I see your towers
you dreamer, you
But your towers are in Dubai,
and Shanghai
now

The world moved on
and forgot everything about
that magnificent mile
burned to make you earn
new toys and fancy things
from far beyond your winding river streams

But you didn't die
amazing, how much they tried
to rust you out
to bleed you dry

no,
Chicago,
you keep your ***** rivers flowing
all the way to the Mississippi
flanked by modern Roman concrete
all the way to the great green sea
out into the puddle that surronds
the Amerigo

Chicago
don't you give up that river dream