Ya Understand Me

Ya Understand Me?

 

The otherside of nuclear                            More like benign bombs

Never meant to blow                             only sit quiet wait to be broken down

 

No need for peace treaty

More like declaration of intentions to speak freely

 

Like Heal the World make it a better place

Shoulda just started on my block

 

They don’t want the Bronx to organize

Because our reparations would like the reservations

Neglect can negate your very existence

An insistence on instigating your instinct

 

Things fall apart barely hanging intact

The natural setting leaves nature sitting

The hatred simmering til the suffering steak is sautéed

 

Medium well                            the tedious spell of dizzying cycles

Riding that wave more like tidal

Before drowning in your spit puddle

 

Wear a life jacket in those deepwaters of reflection

Perception is more important than confessing

 

All those back of the closet secrets whose bones

Still rattle and clang                            trying to find the hood where freedom hang

 

Him and my mother kissing cousins                            but what do we face now?

An empty crib with a cat making dog growls

 

Pictures from yesteryears that tell you half the story

Fill in the rest                            thinking bout how did we end up here gets me stressed

Conventionally conveniently silent

Montage of memories that keep echoing the entropy

 

Mental telepathy would be amazing

Power to transport me faraway

To the fantasy side of family where

There is always a happy ending               everyone says good night

Bendicion             

 

This rendition has a reservation at the windows of my world

Beautiful night to examine the skyline of my spirit

Every valley and peak                            each alley and street

That hides a little bit of my hope

Behind a tree under a rock by the fence

Sit on the bench the secret note will be hidden above

Or below the brick holding the keystone

 

Type to roam dust between bones

Mellow all alone sleepy sometimes scared

 

Beware when the heart bounce

Cautiously avoid being caught up feeling like luck

Is something only a dolla might provide

 

Along with the public there is a darkside

Where the light don’t shine too bright we ain’t wrapped too tight

 

A loose pull leads to a weak push

 

Hard to even open the door for a quick look

Contents shaken under pressure ready to burst

 

Curses are symptomatic of the larger havoc

If you could open the attic only imagine what you could find

 

All the divine signs that have shown you

To walk the thousand steps down the path

 

Of Pa’lante so that nadie

 

can ever

 

Take your love from your hands

 

ProClaim

Pro- Claim

 

Where’s the monument to surviving the ghetto

 

We only celebrate independence

To becoming dependent on this beloved country

 

We hold cookouts on courtyards

Of public housing named after dead presidents

Who never wanted us residents of these blessed blocks

 

We have holidays and days off

Commerate the closing of our culture

 

So where to run when we need

Moments of sincerity amongst the insanity

 

Let’s claim every corner in honor of fallen soldiers

Whose shadows hang over our broken spirits

 

The Bronx River is like Rio Grande de Loiza

You might still see Julia De Burgos

Screaming at the wind They Lie They Lie

 

All vacant lots have become jardines del pueblo

We plant our souls in the soil

So we can reap the revolution

With no apologies complaints or do overs

Mix blood with water in the dirt

So our past can fertilize the future

 

Tomorrow will bloom like bouquets of Pa’lante

Allowing the peoples smiles to blossom

 

Every streetlight will have inspirational quotes

From our freedom fighting writers

De La Vega will sidechalk Become Your Dream

Raimundi Ortiz will capture our heroes in murals

Yasmin Hernandez will paint each every soul rebel

 

Telephone booths will become recording studios

To create the next Cantante India or Pun

 

Newspapers should have a daily quote from Albizu

To affirm the lifelong quest for freedom

 

All diplomas will come with a pastele attached

So you can feed your mind and body

 

Bacardi will sterilize all wounds

Don Q might make you feel better

 

If your child is acting up

There are break in case of emergency chancletas

For all neighbors to use on sinverguenzas

 

Chupacabras are the boogiemen

Who invade the dark and crawl under your bed

Keeping you afraid of the unknown

 

Use your Dylcia and Filiberto nightlights

To push you to be brave

 

Ramon Emetario Betances

Said that no man should ever be a slave

Nor should your mind be trapped in a cage

 

I was told that freedom is like air

Either you have it or don’t

 

Miles from the enchanted island

Still trying to get back home

 

Where the trees stand testimony to our triumph

Coquis create the sound of blood through veins

 

We must leave a legacy

Showing that we conquered as they came

 

But our statues will be dancing salsa

Even our piedras will be insane

Shit to Write About

Shit to Write About

              After Willie Perdomo

 

The way the world turns counterclockwise

How the moon is in the morning sky to wish on

When the sound of the city screams sing your song

A stray cat strolls on by searching the meal

Transactions under train tracks dark midnite

Snuggled closely to a warm body

Love get defined in between dreams and nightmares

Why freedom is being auctioned to the highest quitter

Pushing the definition of real nigga

Who uses liquor for the truth serum to get in touch

With long lost ancestors who eventually abandoned

The main source of any power that comes from within

Mini crisis la Montana from a hill of ants

The precise moment before you ask the devil to dance

All those young faces in faded curled up pictures

Hidden messages behind withered scriptures

Lessons that got learned far too late

Sessions where you burned tried to escape

Unfinished masterpieces revealing ultimate secret

Characters with sketches too close to self portraits

Standing under streetlight silhoutee

Creating sexy looking shadows

To make you infatuated with the darkness

The heartless showing purpose and humanity

The soldiers staring in the mirror

Mysterious murder like the vanity

An affair that is conspicuous yet to be disclosed

A reflection that is shattered

Dropping rocks into puddles

Complex puzzles with the pieces waiting to be arranged

Finally recognizing this happy life won’t be the same

Riding the train home to parts unknown

The road less traveled towards the end of its course

The ultramagnetic force pulling you back to the block

With every teardrop comes new triumph

Still running towards destiny

When will the DJ cue Time’s Up

All those parties poppin til the breakadawn

The sun shines brilliantly on your path

Add up the disparate numbers to get fuzzy math

Where you holding on to hope for a little bit longer

When you slip how soft is the ground beneath you

When you rise how low is the see thru ceiling

If the only option is death then start planning your funeral

Find a suitable composition that might

Transition your abilities to higher altitudes

instead of lower attitudes that attach you to tragedy

combine the undercurrent of apathy

along with the subtleties of nihilism shake violently

to explode like your Tropical Fantasy

you are entitled to absolute effort

otherwise you are selling yourself a sucka for sale

you get discounts on dumb shit add taxes to intelligence

pass your prayers to the president

your responses won’t be politically correct

before you step on stage

make sure your lyrics

pass the mic check

 

O that yr word

O that’s your word?

 

What can I tell you

That you haven’t heard

 

Let me make that regular look extra exotic

Let the same shit different day

Turn into different destiny same smile

 

If the world revolves around you

How can we make the orbit orgasmic

Cosmic courage that could conquer any demons

Dreaming of finding the meaning

When you define the purpose why you searching

 

Maybe that inspiration will drop from the sky

Let gravity’s good graces guide you out the ghetto

 

Make heaven echo your effort

Hell will envy then wanna trade places

Ill if grill was stuck on fuck faces

You could forecast your ecstacy to the planet

Stretch that moment into a lifetime of loving

 

Laugh until you reside in New Snort City

Chuckle until you choke giggle til those good times gush

 

Attributed fortune to luck but the divine

Donated you with your lovelies as a chance

To block the ugly

 

Let your blessings bubble over the lip of the sink

Run your hands through the thick air that fill your lungs

 

Talk your shit as loud as you can

Walk your shit as proud as you can

 

Wear your skin illest designer and copywritten

Pigment plantation destroys

All factories of frustration

 

Have you folded your future

Renewed and maintained your creases

 

Let the coming days off the leash

Screaming comeback you have barely trained the beast

Camouflage your code for explicit expression

Emotion is a weapon that can barely be silenced

Automatic continuation of chaos causes

 

Iced out chain reactions that will freeze happiness

Melt memories of dancing in the sunlight

 

When frivolous becomes fatal you finally

Might blink but instead you say fuck that

I’ma do me whatever that blindly means

 

Easily find your way into a scheme

That beams holograms of hope back

To real time horrorshows starring you

Absent minded accomplice with blood on your hands

 

If your brain draws blanks it prolly spits them as well

Hands tightly wrapped around bars in the cell

 

Visions of happilyeverafter become 3distant

After the Dutch mastered your vocals

The producer punch in your power

Adlibbing admonishment to your adversaries

 

Inadvertently you tripped over urgency

Like oh yeah I gotta be focused as opposed to

Stressed out and hopeless maintain the positive

 

As long as you gotta live you gotta give

A damn fuck or shit whatever you may choose

 

Whatever your choice

Voice must scream the truth

 

friday june 4th, nuyorican poets cafe
10 pm co feature with mike mcgee

it's been awhile. props to mo browne for hooking this up. this past decade has seen some ups and downs and the nuyo has helped me through it all. a stage a mic an audience that will listen. thanks to the universe. this couldn't have come at a better time.

far cry from the first time after the 97 grand slam in the open room. i wanna say morris the stegosarus rocked before me. i read something about being 16 and trying to wake up. i remember a line like my heart is upside down roses hanging on the wall waiting to dry and wither away. damn. i still be feeling like that.

if you around come drop by. it would be cool to reconnect with folks. oh yeah i'm getting married in july. holla.

the words walked away

Feels as if the words walked away

And never cam back home

Tyring to find a different objective

Examine the collective for factory flaws

Unwilling to pause the forward momentum

Too much to handle

Place candles by the window

Hoping the spirits may circle and surround

A wide open ear so you may hear the sound

Of silence that means the opposite of sweet dreams

Thin line between reality and fantasy

Who determines the exact outcomes

Imperfect obscenities plentiful

Observe humanity no one on a pedestal

How can you push proactivelyu

Against damaging floods

Blood blended into smoothies smoothly

Sliding off in search of whatever sin

Makes you smile

Your profile of your good side

Got your bad facing the shadows

Within the darkness brighter side on the flip

The greasy details of the script have been overlooked

Walking the straight line crooked

Who knew every step would lead to Central Bookings

You lost the combination to your own freedom

Steady killings the fable of once upon a time

Because the blunts beyond your mind

Have left you in critical spaces

You lack the basis for a fundamental analysis

Of overstanding the circumstances

Behind the bad romances of your barrio

Where there have been broken hearted

Walk of fame with teardrops personalized

With your signature the calligraphy

Of your confidence has been scribbled sloppily

There has been a severe lack of comprehension

Confounded by making connections

With stars that will never touch the ground

Rotation from the sun

Ill if we could shine below the sky

As clouds hold conferences

To acknowledge the positivity radiated

Gravitated towards the ghetto’s charm and grace

Could scream towards heaven and feel safe

Amongst all the voices harmonizing

Singing the same songs of struggle

Life just a scuffle between demons and angels

Who resemble strangers who strike you familiar

Like seen you before someplace like this

Exactly not quite

Precisely not really

The coordinates haven’t been mapped

To the final destination

Figure out how you are going to get

To where you are going

Before the clock expires

Kill em with Kindness

Kill em with Kindness,

              Or you couldn’t see your light

                            For Tyler

 

Always after the blossoms have bloomed

You ate your first cococherry icy of the summer

To let you know the season has arrived

 

Early morning wakeups just to survive

 

Make meaning out of confused sense

A twisted form of accepting reality

Your vision of the future foggy

 

Now you gaze groggily at the sun

Signaling a new day has risen

 

Let us rejoice and be thankful

 

Ignoring counting your blessings

Because you couldn’t do the math

The sky high price of what you lost

Has left your sense of security staggering

 

Speaking through broken teeth

Has you spitting on people for emphasis

 

Evaluating the basis of your displacement

Stagnant anticipating your next expiration date

 

Redemption has shown up far too late

Even with a remix attached to the bonus track

Exclusive digitally enhanced messages have gone

Undiscovered while you were deep

In discussion of dumb shit in detail

 

Instead of asking the mirror

What happened to your promise

What have you done for me lately

Have you said farewell to your failures

And welcome to all your wishes

 

It’s no wonder your dreams have dipset on your destiny

 

Within your energy no possibility for eventually

Only endlessly perpetually cycle of reruns

Of yesterday’s bugging whole lot of mind numbing

Nonsense to laugh at because otherwise

The flood of tears would be nonstop

 

Easier to wear a copywritten mask

With the bleak background of the block as you bop

 

If you got something on lock

Then where is the chain

 

Decide how you will be remembered

And what legacy remains

 

A stained tee shirt with wrinkled eyes almost saintly pose

A once a year candle flickering against the cold

 

Our souls are old but the stories still so young

Same song loud volume hard to understand words

 

So hard to spell out your hood

When all the letters have the same sound

Of absolute robberies triumphing over ancient philosophies

 

Impossible is where you have planted yourself

Paint yourself with the prophecies of your pain

Like rainbow colors of your amazing chase