neither the contours or
its jagged torn edges
not its superfluity
nor me in my sublimity
the salient sweet funk
radiating out of my unborn
thought dressed in melanin
the saving grace of the diagnosed
disease fiction turned doctrine
your illness my cure
times the fire blazing
white hot afternoons filled
to the brim with purpose
walking with me like shadow
it belongs to me
the dark notes
the unwritten
the distance between my reality
& lies in ink
never far away
my jazz gravity no
notes just an overstanding
you can not understand
a song i was born singing
the story written on my face
the laughter smothered in
my belly the scars on my life
are not subject to interpretation
live beyond your comprehension
manifesting reflecting projected in
callouses on hands and soul
& rusted buckets of uncried tears
flowing in the rivers i have walked
infinite base
dropping on the one
on the ones and twos
remixing
the oceans i drowned in
the deserts i conquered
the places i walked on air
the sharp tips of
mountains scaled
at high cost to remember
to always remember
the valley which holds my dreams
this is my story
reduced to street corners
turfs tatted on knotted arms
craved into trees beside driveways
the bank took
your lips can not fashion
words strong enough to
describe the inside of the
whirlwind its mine
lived and bled from
the dirt in which
my great grannies
great granny walked
feet bare in
harmony with the rhythm of
the universe unbound
remembering to remember
free like breezes
struggling like fleeting hope
down ghetto streets &
section 8 apartment hallways
captured in the eyes in the
moment before triggers are pulled
like smoke from barrels
gone before you taste it
enduring in memory
like a life saver floating
buoyant stubborn hope
you can not weigh
do not understand
i in my everything
knowing its everything
nothing
you can touch or sell
everything
you cant buy or package
everything
in my eyes
in my heart
in my knowing
walking
waking
continuing
my story
growing in trees
sung by the birds
pushing through the dirt
remembering me
reminding me
i own mine
its contours
and jagged torn edges
you can not eat
me i am me
i am the story
(Prelude)
you can not have
us we are
every thing
you can not own
every thing
wind
wings
fire
fur
water
scales
dirt
no co opt
no sell
no buy
be
who you are
or who you
say you are
but not me
be you
you
are you
better or worst
your cross to bear
the book you wrote
the game you made
the bed you burned
you are left with
you trace it back
pick it up
wear the suit
change clothes
you can not have mine
you can
not rewrite the story
backwards and change
the color of your hat
you still you
own it
