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