2017
Escape
Heads not right
Skulls not squeezed tight
Atop my brain
Oh the strain
I must try to understate
Lest my thoughts escape
Twisting patterns and deadly traps; a labyrinth, Pan’s
Tear down what is built up with the same hands
To contradict two unrelated ideas is unto itself a contradiction
The process of the mind is yet misunderstood; fruits of said labor have yet to come to fruition
Stone
I am a stone
Refused and unused by the builder
Considered worthless and only to hinder
Hell and high water await the nightshade and blackberry
I am a stone
Left out, eroded by tongues like whips, Silver
Deceptive words in place of truth
The hardest ones weigh on the mind like soul food does the body
I am a stone
Little more than guns and gangbanging is left to the imagination of those who think of me
I am not success
I am not needed
I am a stone
However I am no simple stone, I am the corner stone
A society built on the backs of my forefathers and my foremothers
Yet you see me as little more than a bug, a pest
Yet I am a stone
Voice
Unspeakable yet spoken
The greatest word of mouth
The appearance defines you
Yet the words contradict
A school closed on the southside is of little concern to the white politicians
They don't want that little brown boy, brown girl to succeed any how
It's institutional and educational racism
A flaw in the system
Bang, pop!
My words blast off like the shot of a gun
A bullet in the skull of a young man in place of knowledge
Because that's how they want it
Let my words speak volumes as they judge based on how I look
Yet that voice behind the words is thrown, detached
It couldn't be from he who stands before them
The voice remains unknown, alien even unto he from which it comes
Voice: the power to speak and be spoken to
Although not always heard
To hear is unconscious, to listen is a choice
Tell me, what is it like to be listened to?