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Kids and Butterflies

       Religious Man

       Winter

       Jimmy Boy

       Jazz

       What I Wanna Do

       Didn’t It Rain

       EM

       Tangled Up in Blue

       Billie

       Poem G

       The Headache

       My Boy

       Shirts and Skirts

       Truths

       One Eye

      This book is for my children Chanel, James, Alexis and Langston. You are the reason I work so hard because I want you to believe in moonshots.

      Revenge Is Too Damn Loud

      Signs on doors implore them to stop killing each other

      Graffiti on walls proclaim keepers of brothers

      Marchers sing for children lost

      But mother’s scream tells the greatest story

      A universal theme of unending pain

      So many names

      So many legends

      One root with so many blames

      But mostly because hearts become inflamed sometimes and have guns

      Because bullets are faster than anyone can run

      So they fall one after one

      Sometimes two by two covered in white sheets and chalk

      Inanimate sheets leaking blood

      Like it’s the code of the hood

      Fallen soldiers where promises once stood

      War heroes with history as their only witness

      Their plight billowed in words and songs

      Ingested by hip-hop throngs and generations

      As they sway to smoke-filled odysseys and an unending stream of retaliation

      Because revenge is too damn loud sometimes

      Louder even than the timeless ballads of “We Shall Overcome”

      Leaving stunned souls with nowhere to run

      Nowhere to turn to except toward closing caskets and funeral songs

      Savior, savior, hear our humblest cry

      While on others thou art calling

      Do not pass us by

      The Baton

      She was a woman

      And a mother all the while to a child

      Needing to save energy for the day

      Teaching order in times of play

      Holding steady while her man is away

      Living for the shelter of home

      And the completeness of humming dishwashers

      Restlessly thrashing water over plates

      Her wishes long since tampered down

      Her sighs and sounds of displeasure no longer measured love or discontent

      Her life bent around tiny little hands and a future not planned

      No matter how far she had come

      She was still her mother

      Same color

      Maybe taller with more of the stuff to succeed

      Still sacrificed for a glass cage

      Playing shadow while he took center stage

      Content to be restless but only to display strength

      Hoping to bend fate a little more

      She wanted to raise a great woman on the shores of a man’s world

      And let her sail as captain of her fate

      Eyes wide to the stars and yet determined

      To shake up the world with her mind

      A chance to fight back the shadows

      To never be afraid to run full speed in fields of lilies

      To hold her head up

      And shine

      Jump

      The boy watched the little bird on the edge of the nest, sitting there in eternal contemplation, as if all the world were before him, his hopes and his dreams all but a wing’s breath away. He could see the mother bird flying back and for the chirping songs of encouragement. The little bird then spread one wing to its maximum length as if to stretch away all his doubts and fears. Next, he extended the other wing as if he were pushing away any other choice but to fly. He could feel the gentle breeze kiss his face as if all the universe conspired to this one moment where this one small sparrow hinged on this instance. His whole life seemed about this one twinkle in time. And then, as if pushed on by his heart to fly or to fall simply on faith, he leapt. He leapt with the faith of Peter walking on water and as if without choice.

      The boy held his breath, and in accord, the leaves and the world froze in the blink of an eye. It seemed as though the sparrow fell forever, but with wings stretched wide and God’s gentle hand carrying him with the spring winds, he flew, higher and higher and gloriously without strings. With a smile, the boy realized that the jump was never the pivotal moment. It was the point when the bird’s heart whispered that life should never be about fear because the anticipation of failure is always worse than the tries. It was when it realized that no heart ever suffered when chasing a dream. Turning from the window, the boy would ever more understand that the greatest part of a journey was not when you finished but the process of the journey itself. It is when you realize that God has unlocked the mystery of your dreams to your heart and that nothing can stand against you and that the voice in your heart is God telling you that your soul is his soul and that you are a miracle, that you can do miracles, and that the best way to glorify God is to jump.

      An Honest Love Poem

      When u smile at me, I’m as helpless as a kitten in a tree

      Wanting only you to come and save me

      Baby, I just wanna get next to you

      I

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