to all my loved ones

Descanse en Power

Everything must change
Constant movement non stop elevation

Eventual decay inevitable spinning
Round similar spots while shifting

Testing feasting famine maintenance
Motivation reflection of sun’s essence

Energy redistributed shaped renewed
Gather different perspectives
For future analysis past and present

Combined into perpetuality
Surface to core beneath concrete

Bedrock molten magma distracted
Dogma separated from church and state

Manmade concepts designing structure
For world floating in universe

Multiplied by many possibilities
Body parts broken down by overuse

Fatigue stress on the function
Junction of emjambed joints
Pain absorbed at every point

Experimenting with brand new horizons
Mistakes are new chances to learn
How it should actually be done

Study archives to see how you will thrive
Give our people a chance to survive

despierta jovencito

Wake up Students

Incredible amounts of self doubt
Infinite second guessing

Lonely enough to crowd island
Want the world to change
But won’t begin to organize

Lack of confidence
With every compliment

More self conscious
Quiet around who you need to
Ask questions and guidance

Not so sure of survival
Perhaps manana
Will wake with new found
Over standing so won’t be
Sitting under self deprecation

Putting down powers within
Caught in whirlwind running
Around reason with no rhythm

Asking for a dance
Worried about rejection

Let’s read because I haven’t read
Since I was in pre k

Barely learned my ABCs
Can do the math fluidly
But can’t figure out
A theme resolution
Or any characterization

Mine as well still be
On the plantation
Because freedom hidden
Deep in middle of book
Never to be opened

Hoping the message will
Bounce across the sky
Fall right on me

Why are you stressing
Making this an issue

Trying to pass off
Something for free

Perhaps you might move
We could sit here all day
Just be assholes to each other
Or we could give each other
A chance to do something

Different like going beyond
What is expected of you
Which is the world

Rotating in your palms
How would you shake it up
Break it up not you just me

Right now really want to be
Friends of it all possible

Uneasy effort shocking to you
But the end result is proving
Your abilities to yourself

The immediate is directly
Tied to your wealth

Unacceptable limit of
Your account when you bounce
There is the fall and the rise

follow up

How do you teach with passion
Faced with incredible amounts of apathy

So much it starts to infect your attitude
With no chance of recovery

In a position of discovery new knowledge
Embrace the same old shit
Allow the corner to infiltrate your soul

Easy to say fuck college
My future is gonna be poppin
I’m a be the best doctor in Brooklyn
Even though I can’t read or write
Life is crazy now
But I swear I can pray away the pain
Just like I can dodge rain
Hold up the thunder

Whatever shorty good luck and god bless
I got a degree from Columbia
I can still be locked up

It came from trying to be the best
On every level I was a high achieving student
Way before I met devils in the street

Peace existed within the closed confines
Of a still heavenly healthy temple

A whole lot of motivation within mental
Eventually you might have to display your intelligence

When you read the fine print to your severance package
Placing you amongst the ranks of the unemployed

Too much noise not enough concentration
Dedication but absolutely impatient

Time catches up to them
Realizing they haven’t learned anything since grade school
But are on the honor roll for being cool

Every rule was constructed to be broken
Hoping prosperity will become theirs as quickly
As they can fantasize about fatality
Reality only matters if they have high ratings
When you are high what brain cells are you saving

How much are you actually creating
Debating your demons elevating your energy

Half of your destiny tied to enemies you allow
To control your fate

Other tied to faith freely
Following your shadows avoiding the light

Every night getting closer to future but wanting
To run to the past where smiles were permanently
Tattooed on trademark mask

Never too many questions to ask
Because clarity is uncertain

Hardly doing anything
I’m not doing nothing
When you supposed to be working

excuse me ladies and gentlemen....

Veinte Seis

Selling some candy to save my life

Hope your sweet tooth will deliver me off this express train

One way ticket to where I been dreaming

The confections man has arrived

Grinding after school rush hour to give you that snack

Peanut m & m’s skittles snickers

Speak up closed mouth don’t get fed please don’t whisper

Give me maybe a lil more than dollar

You see this sugar in the flesh

But there’s a lot of rain you might not see me tomorrow

All this drama sleeping on the subway

Benches almost like memory foam

I know I’m not alone

We should from a Candy Workers Union

Shut down the newspaper stand poisoning your brain

Me I’m giving hope to the people

Just riding the grain not flushing my life down the drain

Like empty racist Arizona can

Full of high fructose like duck hunting

Might be the next one bucked down for fun

I’m running this marathon waiting for someone

To give me a fresh drink

Think about all your sweet memories

I could possibly provide

Don’t know how much more time

We have left to survive

Whatever remains I’m just trying

To get mines

no need to claim what i is....

Tipico Trademarked

How many coquis will have to be sacrificed

how much coquito will I have to guzzle

will I have to bathe every scar in Bacardi

drown my depression in Don Q

tattoo Vaya and Punto across my knuckles

memorize every Marc Anthony

flow with Frankie Ruiz

ain't we all searching for  that cura

but Miky showed me

no bodeguero will sell you a dream

much less give you a loose on credit

torture myself until my artist credentials

are certified by the latinati gatekeepers

perfecting my code switching Bronx Acento

with no barbed wire fences between the barrio

and academy forcing us to define ourselves

until every other Boricua is the enemy

they don't agree with  your prescription

for Puerto Rico's future

still confined to hidden history unpublished

so pieces of Pa'lante

have perished cherishing beach front

Florida condos far from the puercos bajando

overcooking a well done stake in silly game

to claim whoever has been closest

to the creators of that la carreta lane

mira maestro

Professional Development

How can you develop

As a professional teacher

When nowhere in the conversation

Is how this affects poor children

Barely can follow directions

And you expect a lifeless machine

To give them all the answers

When none of the knowledge is real

Not applied to future human contact

Where in the contract does it say

Students become the objects of their education

Slice off top half off brain

And pour books into lovely lobotomy

So much monotony of point and click

When the point is to sit instead of take a stand

Easy to understand who sees over you

Want the easy identification

Can examine your soul with 10 True and False

Initiative to instigate fuse ignited

On hot cheeks with dynamite

About to explode all over buns

No fund you can trust

When culture becomes cookie cutter

No mention of hot peas and butter

After school conversations

About bringing yo ass straight home

So we constantly know your whereabouts

Whenever you blink there isn’t enough time

To think about brink of insanity

Tiptoeing the edge without knowledge

Of gravity forces conspiring to bring

You down to uncomfortable concrete

Cemetery stellar highlights

As a dropout who denies personal responsibility

Blaming a victim

In foggy mirrors copywritten

Impersonation of teacher facilitating

Learning in digital age with unlimited divide

How can we rebuild the chasm

Zenith to abyss plummet to summit

Vomit your textbook raps

With plagiarized facts

Never got a chance

To check the sources with credible elders

Whose pores breathe freedom

Brilliant mysteries

Kept as dusty histories

Recognize your privilege

To ever ask Why?

On a quest for truth

Please don’t disrespect

My intelligence

Or try to spit in my 3rd eye

any longevity?

“…because you figure/you gonna older/way longer/than you gonna be younger.”

                                        -Sheek Louch                                                   

make sure to get copies of medical records

from here going forward tragic irony

brown people have Vitamin D deficiency

when our skin naturally absorbs the most sun

migrated to places where soul is frozen

every breath used to warm up the inside

provide oxygen to bring words outside

we have given ourselves unhealthy habits

in a quest to find original tribe

how can the blood be fine

when after a shower still feel dirty

are we worthy of prosperous dreams

needing to move nihilism

trapped in our own prisons

won’t release brothers

rather slowly bleed than heal leaking wounds

call that love

when you would light a dub

but wouldn’t break bread for some grub

get you in the club

but won’t shield you from a stomp or slug

am I my brother’s reaper

feeding him poison instead of power

getting saucy is sweet

but better when brain is all sour

hard to build a nation

when you can’t lay enough bricks to construct

non cipher negativity

leaves you ready to self destruct

reluctant to realize until pitiful gritty

run in front of everywhere you can’t run from

objective opinion declaring truth about your dominion

why do you let your holy temple be scarred and tagged

faded murals in your lungs

leaving mausoleum for memories

waiting to be resurrected and remembered

from a gaseous graveyard

hope floats along

a clogged up tapon

flowing through palpitations in Corazon

love takes 3 day weekends there occasionally

but no longer because stress made the rent too high

brain been occupied by youthful fantasies

that will never come true

too lazy to argue

just sulk and lean

until sunset drops on forgettable dreams

still clinging underneath eyelids

curious if you just peek

will motivate the muscles atrophied by inaction

towards experiencing the satisfaction of redefinition

witnessed up close manifested a miracle

hunger irresistible

convincing you something must

be happening

with that lump in your jaw