My 2 Cents for the 99%

(video's at the bottom)

11-15-11

Money makes the world go round….is a thought I abhor
True as it may be on a dozen different shores
From Jean Paul Gaultier to all the dollar stores
for a lot of us it seems money's got us on all fours
We bark when it says speak and let it tug our popped collars
lug thru every week while being drug thru debt galore
fillin out our lives like a fuckin order form
And this I'm sad to say's becoming more n more the norm
we can barely tell the difference between perfume…and chloroform
as we put our passions deep to sleep to be cool instead of warm
Is there any reason to think that there will ever be reform
as our imaginations shrink along with the depth of our own core
it’s like the soul’s the missing link as we are further than before
from the center, towards the brink of an endless civil war
One country fails, One country succeeds, and the prosperous ignore
the luscious garden’s full of weeds but there’s nothing to deplore
“as long as there’s a clean place for my feet and the poor don’t look…
too poor, then there’s not much else I need up on the 42nd floor”
Not that you should be ashamed of being successful…or a whore
it just doesn’t seem humane to suck the life out of every pore
of every person in every country for the profits that you HOARD

So you wanna know what I think of money
and the rich vs the poor
yeah you Got NO I-DEA What the fuck I got in store!

Whenever I look at the system I think there must be a glitch
most the world lives in a prison that was built by the rich
and the poor live with this mission as they stretch every stitch
to get on that golden bridge instead of livin in this ditch
but da whole world’s like a game that is fulla bait and switch
and I don’t know the system’s name but it really is a bitch
fulla pretty rocks that glisten and pleasures that make you itch
fulla ears that never listen and eyes that look bewitched
or bewildered by the isms that make everybody twitch
Capitalism….commercialism….consumerism, which
are the trains on which
everybody’s lives are hitched
You might think it idealism
you might even call it kitsch
but I do not see the wisdom
in so many superrich
Faces buried in the bosoms
that ‘re inflated by a switch
… throwin out buffets
while people starve for a sandwich
half a world away
or in your city’s every niche
people sittin in soup kitchens
eatin up the CARTILAGE!

So ya wanna know what I thinka money
…and the poor vs the rich
yeah I’d drop another fuckin HOUSE on that GREEN
WICKED WITCH!

~~ da video version!~~

Black Lightning / Slient Thunder

Alright, I got some cool stuff in the works for you guys, but in the mean time....

Last night I got to talkin with the Prangie. I was sharin some of my recent pieces with her--just to share, just to practice--and she asked me how long I've been into poetry and....I started talking, like I don't often talk. Told her the story of how I got into poetry, how it was like finding something in the world that I found was also inside of me. The other half of my broken rock. And then once I got into it, it was like finding my very own socket to plug into the abstract and ethereal. Some PRETTY interesting stuff came out of me (eek), as I showed her, as I pulled out my first poetry notebook and let her take a look. We've been friends for years, she doesn't know any of this stuff about me :). So I got it out and I showed her, let her flip thru it in all its decrepitude, read my very first poems! "Ooooh, ahhhhhhh." More like "Hahaha, Huhhh?" It was good to tell the story again though, it's been happening more lately but I figure I'm making up for lost time. Up until this past year, I hadn't told it in years and years. It's a cool story. Not to mention one of the most important ones of my life.

Towards the back of the book was a poem that I believed At The Time was one of my best. I was pretty proud of it, ill placed as that pride might have been. It's dated 1-21-22-97 so that puts me at 15. So KEEP THAT IN MIND, it was a written by a 15 year old! Don't expect much, lol. But while we were looking at it, it crossed my mind that it might be a cool one to share with you guys. Just for the history. Just to show you a glimpse of where I was. Just to....share. Cuz I'm bad at that sometimes, at least when it comes to things that.....matter. So yeah, why not. Here it is.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Black Lightning and Silent Thunder

1-21-22-97

Lightning crashes, and a blind man thrashes
from the darkness that holds him tight
The Thunder rolls, and the blind man holds
on to a hope that he will die tonight
Lightning crashes, and the blind man's ashes
are spread in his memory
The Thunder rolls, and the blind man's soul,
from the darkness is finally set free
Lightning crashes, and thirty lashes
are laid upon a slave man's back
The Thunder rolls, and his freedom was stole
just because his skin was black
Lightning crashes, and a deaf man smashes
a record he once listened to
The Thunder rolls, and the deaf man lolls
and wishes for some sound to break through
Lightning crashes, and some time passes
and the deaf man's wish comes true
The Thunder rolls and the deaf man still lolls,
but the broken record of silence he listens to
Lightning crashes, and a pursued thief dashes
across a busy street
The Thunder rolls, and a silent bell tolls
and with Death the thief does meet
Lightning crashes, and the ocean tide splashes
against a young child who is curious
The Thunder rolls, and the ocean tide pulls
the young child into the mysterious
Lightning crashes, and the young child vanishes,
and the mother dives in for her one and only
The Thunder rolls, and the tide still pulls,
at least now they won't be lonely
Two Lightning bolts crash, and two opinions clash,
and two countries young blood stains the floor
The Thunder rolls, the Thunder of souls
that died for an unwanted war
Lightning crashes, and its bright light flashes,
and cracks the darkness that is Night
The Thunder rolls, and in its path it beholds
answers neither wrong nor right

How to Bleed

11-5-11

Write til your fingers hurt, instead of everything else.

when you have a voice…you have power
when you have personality…you have pull
when you have a pen and an hour
you can create your own tools
your own weapons
your own answers
your own beliefs
and rules
with one night and notepad
you can take yourself to school
get to know all about
how you think and why you do
you can ask yourself some questions
and see if you tell the truth
you can cry thru the ink
and even bleed a little too
…save yourself some scars
and maybe heal some old wounds
it’s a step, it’s a process,
like the cycles of the moon
but every day is a month
and every night a monsoon
you can try to fight the waters
or splash all way to doom
but the best thing you could learn
is how to float…
Like A Balloon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the waters come in
you gotta let the water out
whether it’s black or pristine
as a sky without a cloud
it’s gotta flow, you gotta know
that standin water’s not allowed
we’re not meant to be containers
bottled up without a mouth
it’s a scary sight to see
alla those that go that route
when knife attacks and shooting sprees
are how they finally choose to spout
about the amount of pain inside
that sounds like screams when said aloud
the darkness seeps into our dreams
and hides the light behind a shroud
crawlin on our hands and knees
in search of reasons to be proud
we think a peak is what we need
to reach to speak without a doubt
we lost our voice when we believed
we were alone inside this crowd
and now we huddle up like leaves
when leaves are nothing like ourselves

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The System is a B-I-T-

Hot off the press! This is somethin I started playin with in my head on the way home from seein that IN TIME movie. Really cool flick. But I didn't sit down and try to write anything til a couple hours ago. But I did it! Just somethin fun, but I like it, so I'll share.

I've been wanting to write a new rap. Been kinda lookin for a topic or just a good line I wanna rhyme and jump off of. But I haven't found one/thoughta one. Sometimes I literally get thirsty for a new rhyme. There's nothin quite like the feel of a homemade flow fresh on your lips. That day it all kinda came together, finally. The other main ingredient/source of inspiration was Lupe Fiasco, a pretty amazing musician/rapper/lyricist who's been raisin the bar for me in terms of content and quality. I just discovered him a few months ago and he just impresses the hell outta me, makes me miss writin raps.

So yeah, that's what this is. A rap, or at least mostly. It's about 3 parts rap, one part performance poem. So it's not straight up made for a beat or anything; just a mic and some ears. But yeah, it is meant to be read FAST. There's little punctuation cuz there's not really any stoppin, just a couple pauses in there and one or two breaths :). It is "metered," or at least it is how I read it, lol. Good luck with that, I have no idea what it would sound like if you read it out loud. I guess I should try that on one of my friends some time just to see. How much you would butcher it ;).

The other reason for this is cuz I've been wanting to share some poetry with you guys! It's been ages and it's not because I'm not writing. I'm writing quite a bit, but it's ALL performance stuff. And I'll never post that stuff in written form! :) Sorry. There's just no way I'm going to spoil those pieces for you, even if you have to wait years to hear em. So I intentionally made this one more for the page, but....I also don't think it's done. Think I'll probably add to it, a beginning and a whole nother verse on the end. But another day, this is good enough for now. Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whenever I look at the system I think there must be a glitch
most the world lives in a prison that was built by the rich
and the poor live with this mission as they stretch every stitch
to get up on that bridge instead of livin in this ditch
but da whole world’s like a game that is full of bait and switch
and I don’t know the system’s name but it really is a bitch
fulla pretty rocks that glisten and pleasures that make ya itch
fulla ears that never listen and eyes that look bewitched
or bewildered by the isms that make everybody twitch
capitalism….consumerism….commercialism, which
are the trains on which
everybody’s lives are hitched
you might think it idealism
you might even call it kitsch
but I do not see the wisdom
in so many superrich
faces buried in the bosoms
that ‘re inflated by a switch
…throwin out buffets
while people starve for a sandwich
half a world away
or in your city’s every niche
people sittin in soup kitchens
eatin up the CARTILAGE!

so ya wanna know what I thinka money
…and the poor vs the rich
yeah I would drop another HOUSE on that GREEN
WICKED WITCH!