​unchain from it all
go wherever life takes you
let your heart be free

welcome to the forgotten poor
underfunded schools, a Chinese spot, the projects, and a busy liquor store
this is all she sees when she walks out the door
her momma tells her to study hard so she can have more
 
every day the little girl writes in her composition notebook
one story is about this five course meal and the lives that it took
short story with a moral, teach a lesson like fables
a little food for thought to feed the mass behind your navel
 
first course (soup)
first to the block
where the corners stay open
cause the dealers don’t stop and the pigs stay looking
for their next quota and everyone thinks they’re Ray Liotta
destined to be “a made man”, but they don’t understand
they’re the reason why there are fiends coming back
like loyal fans for assorted brands transacting into non-melanated hands
if politicians were only this sympathetic when the crack epidemic began
 
second course (salad)
here come the dirty boys in blue with nothing better to do
profiling innocent people of a different skin hue
thinking they’re above the law, beatings and shootings ensue
they claimed they feared for their lives, camera footage purview
getting slaps on their wrist for brutality they do
then it’s back to the streets to target another like you
 
third course (appetizer)
now peep these two men arguing
it’s hood beef their harboring
one stole a chain and the block that he claims
so he steps to the dude, figures gun fire will heal his pain
one stray in the park and my best friend’s slain
her momma screaming and crying
hide her tears when it starts to rain
but the memory of that day will remain
 
fourth course (main dinner)
next to the project bench where a little kid sits
trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents
and he feels it’s only common sense
to give to the poor and take from the rich
so he and his friends plan to hit a lick
steal a man’s wallet and carjack his whip
plan goes wrong, strapped man strikes back
local news reports kid and friends got capped
 
fifth course (dessert)
you see the street prostitutes dressed like vixens in video shoots
they hoe-ing the cooch just to get the hooker loot
when they finish what they started give a customer the boot
back to where they departed waiting for a horn toot
hitting more balls out the park than legend Babe Ruth
and the pimps in the cut stacking profits in zoot suits

if you eat what you’re fed
and that’s all that you know
then you’re conditioned on familiar
and that’s probably how you’ll grow
 
unless you beat the status quo

I Am A Fornicator
i fucked words
in and out of connotations and denotations
before poetry proposed to me
and i was forced into an arranged marriage
 
I Am A Hustler
i packaged my work in paperback
then hit the corner
i got lines guaranteed to get you high
expand your consciousness
 
I Am A Prostitute
i sold my goods on the street
some called it a cheap thrill with great value
i kept ‘em coming back for more
and there’s more where that came from
 
I Am A Thief
i crept into the literary world
and claimed everything but your art
i created a style they aspire
to elevate higher, i am your muse
 
I Am A Thug
i took your shit
that was originally my shit
and restored it back to health
your misappropriation, i saved
 
I Am A Murderer
i kill every poem i touch
giving sentences to senseless crimes
readers acquit me of all charges and opinions
and i’d do it all again…

find something that you
are passionate about and
give your heart a voice