Call it

All the way live

and, every night, the bullets:

flying.

Even if you ain’t dying,

you a traumatized survivor.

When you grow up in a climate of

overriding violence,

you will never get beyond it -- it’ll always be

inside you.

And death?

Just surrounds you:

fallen classmates’ ghosts haunt you,

crime just calls you 'cause

you look

at what you walk through.

Ain’t certain if you’ll make it --

ain’t sure you even

want to.

...

(Tearsandsorrow

blockthesunlight

headlow heartbroke

eyesclosed tonguetied

Waters raise the tide

is climbing

Speeding time the sky is

crying

shots are fired

bombs & sirens war & riots

mourning

in America)

...

Now

that society forgot you, and they locked you

in an obstacle course where nothing’s possible --

if you slip up and they caught you,

they got boxes where they

lock you

make a million dollars off you.

...

They say they built our nation

for a reason --

then they stained it

with the bleeding

of the slaves that never seen it.

I ain’t hating (I still wanna believe it),

and I’m not trying

to leave it,

I just

call it how I see it.