snap .

AND Then He said, "you're my everything" while pulling out a condom .
she frowned . she knew he was lying, but felt an obligation to smile .
she felt the need to smile & validate his lie .

in the pit of her stomach she wanted to whisper, "oh pleeeease" .
but nope, she smiled to protect his feelings while putting hers on the front line of battle .
each time she held her tongue ,
a piece of her good sense . . . snapped in half .
so , legs were spread .

"You know I only care for you girl," he said half-attentive .
she smiled, silence .
snap . s n a p . SNAP .
she could see the liar in his eyes . she knew how lies worked .
they fill in the eyes , the dance into the mouth & leap out .
his eyes were so full, she thought that they would drown .
his lies leaped out so gracefully , it was truly a practiced skill .

she validated his lie . smile . and snap . the more it snapped, the more fungi of naivete grew on her bones . she started to believe him . just ask her now .

the color of the sky : green .

when is Christmas? July 25th .

the color of grass: purple .

where is California? in Europe .

Who can love you like he can love you ? No One .

Def Jam Poetry Week :)

juggle .

d o o m e d .
shouted the pessimist .
or perhaps . . . 'shouted the realist' ?
or maybe, 'shouted the person with lack of all hope' ?

these three concepts are thrown toward me simultaneously .
i catch one with my left hand, one with my right ,
oh but good ole' number three . . . hits me in the chest & i drop all of them .
they sit on the floor, tangled 'till i tilt over to unravel .
i've been unraveling for ten years now .

is it naive to be realistic when you can see devastation's shadow creeping up s l o w ?
those burgundy gloves of pessimism prop you up, waiting for the blow .

is it taboo to hold on when hope fails you ?
hope can carry people 5,000 feet in the air just to enjoy the view .
oh but hope can disappoint, your body dropped and broken in two .

they say, 'it's always best to stay positive' .
but 'they' probably live lavishly with money deposited .

hope keeps me going everyday .
but when it fails us, should we find another way ?

hope cant lose hope in me ,
im staying around . . .
i pray that eventually ,
i'll land on solid ground .

Def Jam Poetry Week :)

harvested & manifested

"life is short, but it's wide ."

God's hands lay out the tortilla of our life flat .
then the contents are added and stuffed until we have the burrito of our fate . simple enough ?

Most people reach the age of seventy when they realize that life is not as fragile as everyone makes it seem . With bad hips and gray hairs, they realize that life's ambitions could have stretched long enough to cover mountains and oceans . With hearing aids and bad sight, they promote change in the world & learn that other's opinions are a waste of mouth movement .

if only the youth had the wisdom of our elders . We would learn to throw our messy, colorful, premature lives up against the walls of the world . . . making our mark . If only we could apply the wisdom of our elders to shortcut our way through the unnecessary roadblocks of life . opening the trapdoor in our lives to skip the felony charges, the ignorance, the sameness of a world that is allergic to individuality .

instead, we brush our grandparents & elders off as 'crazy', as 'outdated' . Yet, we want to take their fashion and slang . We may not have the most articulate elders or the sweetest grandparents , but we have some of the wisest . They dont give speeches about life's lessons & that says a lot . They have simplified their perspectives into short phrases, "i remember love" . "keep some dignity about yourself" . "listen . dont speak" "hold on to God" .

so the next time you see your grandmother's weak, fragile hands . . . consider the decades they have seen . the number of hand's they held . What types of tears they wiped away & the generations that they lift everyday .

[inspired by the book : Wise Women , quotes from elders of our generation]