#compton
"Be home before the streetlights!"
Mama says, expecting me home tonight.
I walk casually, on the lookout for my friends,
Dark clothes cause I don't care for trends.
In a city like Compton
every way of comfortably living forgotten.
I pick up my pace as I see my brothers.
They've been here for me like no other.
I wish life was like the movies,
My dreams of wealth will always remain fantasies.
Syrup sandwiches and cinnamon toast,
My fathers presence remains that of a ghost.
I finally reach the park,
It's dimly illuminated but we still in the dark.
All my friends come from something similar,
Hunger waging war with no one to administer.
Shots ring out somewhere far,
same rounds leaving scars.
Same story every day,
somebody lost because of a stray.
Crips and Bloods fight.
Using MAC10s out of spite.
We don't even know what we fight for.
Ancient beef that only causes war?
Most people join just for the name.
Some for protection, but they all end up the same.
Posted up outside with untucked chains.
Sidewalk painted with pain.
We're all the same,
everybody killing for Section 8 fame.
Same cupboards with government cheese.
Same people getting food from EBT.
My old man a poltergeist,
something of a whisper of the wind at night.
Mama never told me his name,
the shoes he left weren't left for me to claim.
I'm home now,
room colder, don't know how.
Kendrick in my headphones,
something still hidden in the undertones.
May 18
May 18, 2026 at 3:39 AM UTC
walkin down the street
as shots ring out, way far away
i cradle my nine
May 18
May 18, 2026 at 3:03 AM UTC