Kept isolated these sounds hold no wisdom
Own frown worn of habit
Habitat erodes to points past tragic
Fragments of meaning cling to tongue like flesh to bone
Prolong our suffering, please
It reminds me to breathe
Beneath the handshakes tirades shape fragile friendships
Watch who you call kin for few deserve respect
And it'll be those you adore who in final act attack with knives and bats
Basic human nature to be inhuman
Love looms in shadows
Truth's face veiled from angelic eyes...
Hope evaporates like morning dew past sunrise
If all we can do is try, then why even bother?
Fodder for conversation? Or true exasperation achieved at third marker?
Are we actors or scholars?
Winos or warriors?
Wishful thoughts have only led to inaction
And so thoughtless acts of violence paint our grim future
Beware the fruits of knowledge, what type of lesson to teach our young?!
Average men sent to certain demise just to fill our casket quota
They say the answers will be evident once we are older
I feel too old
I feel inept to achieve heights of dreams of forefathers
Have we spent so long on knees that we forgot how to walk?
The ancients talked of a nirvana perhaps none are privy to see
Candlelit thoughts rise with smoke as sacrifice from well worn alter
My altered perception has this graveled floor as our only heaven
Wonder and awe lost to youthful sight
I invite us all to sink deeper
Leathered tongue to match facial features
Greet us with warm embrace
Were we to retrace our steps they would lead us to the first time we cared to listen
Envision valleys from which we only heard echos of life
Lived a million times
Stones erode to show us how we all succumb to elements
Forgave the ones who's names became irrelevant
As I crawled closer to the very core of what I despise
That dream deferred of Langstonian lure might as well be myth
Seems we have awoken only to be put to bed once more
A dream forgotten
Amidst jewels soaked in our own blood
Precious necklace to replace weathered noose
As history fades into the drunkard's mind
We choose what nightmares to forget, what lie to remember
It's quite easy to forget who you are
The remnants of my life scattered at feet like offerings to Mayan gods
Hands hold weight of face in hallways that echo muffled sobs

Revert to street corners, double deuce in brown bags
Felt the earth shift, spit to ground, had to laugh
Level fields only yield your stale crops
Corrupt seeds infest cities like pale cops
Our peoples weighed down by 41 lead shots
Walk blocks still scorched by ancestry
Felt my spirit break with the levies
Situations heavy...
Keep that speech pattern steady
Found melody in pain like Leadbelly
People's been ready!
Focused mind turned to deadly
Devise the ill plot if you'd let me
Poised to poison wells of the real infidels, so don't tempt me


Sip filthy water from cupped palms for thirst
The wise always knew things were bound to get worse
Their wealth came from fields that they forced us to work
Now we brainwashed to buy so we still getting jerked
Seen, revolutions overthrown by inaction
News in scrolled caption, captivates captives
Scholars or Actors?
In broader terms they just hate us Brown bastards

If I believed in you, I would only clasp these hands in an attempt to choke you
Provoked to speak in strict silence
Why mince our words when we both prefer violence
A tired soul reflects upon what it means to marry our aged sun with this Mayan midnight
An African verse of perfect syllable alludes to the hopes and dreams of all humans
Meaning escapes the translucent mind
But I'm beginning to see those I seek in my peripheral