Blank Verse - Off days in Between Perfection

I hear his footsteps leading to our door

I put the plate of food on the table

He loosens his tie, smiles and sits down

These are the days in between the pictures

The pictures you put on your fridge

Even the day he brought a rose home

Flowered me with apologies for his lateness

No ones perfect you know, he said to me,

Even the day we sat at the steak house

Testing each other, how many languages

we could say "I love you" in

Somehow all got lost in translation

All I could remember is I don't eat Red Meat

But I cook it for him all the time

I know that many days will come with out

Smiles for the camera, but that alright

Sacrifices in this one on one game come with

Slam dunks, gifts, and even unexpected freestyles

I can capture all these moments in my head

Even when the rose has withered away

When there is nothing to talk about at all

Like the time I asked him what exactly he was thinking

Blooming springtimes have passed to a new dawn

A summer like the first except 8 trip deep into the sun

A new beginning with no end in sight - till infinity

Most days silence can't even fit between

Our words, back and forth like ping pong

Tossing and turning and then he holds me

But in these memories of waiting for the flash

Waiting for the punch line to a good joke

I like them like a frown with a smile 'cause

the suns in your eyes and its a good day

Then the clouds tickle the sky and you can see me

Not black and white anymore, now some gray

Clearly out of focus because he kissed me

But I'm just so damn tired, I work too much

Like waking before the sunrise, De Ja Vu

Again and again, just to pay the bills

Through times not worth a magnet for you fridge

I will love him in between the photos still

(Originally Written 2006 Spring)

Too Many

Too many

people already know what they would wear for a funeral, the clothes are picked out for the occasion, they have worn the hiding tears solemn face too many times. Too many more then the joy of a wedding or even too many more then a baby being born, as often as that occurs. So the balance of life and death is tilted like a A's fitted cap worn as a crown on a king, we walk steady, we rawk steady. In the pit of our gut there is a vision of ism's whether the trigger is pulled by a white police officer while a man lie with his hands behind his back, or a man shooting the man in the mirror. Both are just as unjust and trust both kill our community just as much. In a land where we say "whats good" "its all good" "i know whats happening" "shoot me to the store" "i'll hit you later" as often as we say fasho, it a little to crazy, to think we know this is happening and we are not outraged, not inspired to scream, when young innocent live are taken away from their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, and friends.

I wrote a song a long time ago that I called "Real' which i spontaneously used the chorus for when performing at protests for Oscar grant with lyrics saying:

Too many people have died
And you wonder why the youth of today
Smoke blunts all day
Times are crazy on the daily
praying that I see the next sun
Rise in this city where cops lie
Innocent die, WHy?
You gotta take 'em away
Seem's like yesterday
we was kick'n it memories
of the deceased got me down
Faced to the ground but
Thats when I heard my sister say
Keep yo head up
So I am hopeing for better days
Scopen for any way
to bring my people to the top
and Stop the violence




Inspired by Siaira Shawn's song Too Many
(one of the many songs I love speaking on the injustice that took Oscar Grant's life and too many others)