Decriminalization

Postnatal dove waking up to tend the garden.

Finds post-racial love-making done before it started.

Cause most fatal guns take its young to the departed.

Then ghosts' aching lungs sing their songs to broken-hearted.

Let's deal with the plant – you know the weird smellin’ shit?

Cut it low, gets you high, but gonna stop coppin' it.

Let ‘em walk streets with cracked lips and redlined eyes lit.

If they die, well, we tried.

Decriminalized it.

De, or criminalize it.

Legalize it. Take a hit.

Traumatized kids, shine like gold but in bracelets.

Convict me. Acquit me. Don't matter - you with me?

Like teen sex the pretext still fucking the city.

Possession. Intention. Is it still a recession?

Bull economics don't bear no impression,

If a needle's incision can't fix the depression,

And physician's prescriptions maintain the oppression.

Commissions of lobbyists light the ignition.

Clinicians with vials, rev the transmission.

But morticians don't read through your damn publications.

As cops piss on black lives - 'cause urine-a-nation

Faux integration in an Obamanation.

Firing blank bullets with the premature Barack-elation.

It's 20-16, and here comes the procession.

Cavalry of white horses leads the election.

And I think to myself:

If they're just running for them, should I run for the exit?

Cause democracy's dead - it's all self selection.

"A revolution is coming!

Free the black man!"

Look! At the Podium!

The Reverend is now a white politician!

Preachin’ policy could desperately use some revision.

But frauds get no sleep, so no Dream, just a vision.

Says “We pillage the streets, so we can stick ‘em in prison.

How can that work? Don’t you see what we’re missin'?

We can save them, my people. It’s a simple decision.”

Eating shit. Shitting hope.

Sorry. Quick question… You drink piss while you’re pissin?

Is that a cape or a caper? Just whom are you saving?

Your career? The black vote? Is that justice you’re raping?

Surrender to God? country? self? Whose flag are you waving?

Flow lines like a poet. Shit, so can a raven.

Here’s a new proposal for decriminalization.

Decriminalization of the young black body.

Send that shit through congress; it's comin' out bloody.

I’m just being honest 'bout the bubonic arrest.

The black plague adapts to send homies to death.

And nothing can stop it. No memoirs or marches.

Last April, Gray was the new shade of darkness.

No drug in his blood, in his brain, or his pockets.

Don’t tell us decriminalization will stop this.

First prize in the Space Race. Lost the race of the races.

Overt to covert. The Apollos then hatred.

Armstrong's in a white suit, so we said he was sacred.

Strong arm of the law, “don’t shoot!” Blacks are breaking.

Neil and Buzz, the highest blokes of the 60s,

Till John and Paul touched down and sang songs to the hippies.

Ain't no thing, though. See the tie-die flow?

They ain't like the Crips, see?

If they thug we won't shoot. Just bringing life to the cities.

Acid trips, but no falls, cause the negro did catch him.

With hands up, wrists locked, to take his spot in the vacuum

That sucks up potential like a whore in the back room.

Spitting seeds that get buried but don't see the black bloom.

So we dug a little deeper, found a drug ain't the problem.

Cause the roots of the plant are still part of the garden.

Bedrock is more likely where you will find 'em,

Between blunt force and a woman, with a motherfuckin hard on.

We don’t get it. It’s all misunderstood. Just ask ‘em.

They’ll kiss a curb for an ounce and won't buck at the time if

We decriminalize the body, not the drug it gets high with.

Glaucoma ain’t shit next to cortical blindness

To the reality - disparity - between black kids and my kids.

So who is the nigga writing this lyric?

White male. Summa laude. This ain't even satiric.

Suck on that diction. Would you say I’m artic-late?

Is that sexist? Racist?

Real quick, let’s revisit.

Never smoked weed. Not once. Never cared to.

Never gave more than a thought to my hairdo.

Told I was special; bought it as blind truth.

Just lifted my eyes, saw all I needed for my proof.

Garages. Fast cars. Folks scooping up dog poop.

Met strangers who liked me cause I’m not a big black dude.

Had teachers who knew I would take it to grad school.

“Study up, son. Knowledge is power. It’s on you.”

It was easy to read and write what they taught me.

It’s the same way I spoke with daddy and mommy.

Phonics. Ebonics. You know race tectonics?

It’s complex, but for you I'll try to be here laconic.

It’s the motion of the ocean, like waves, but it’s chronic.

Begins with the atom. Covalent. Ionic.

Collide and crumble in a rumble harmonic.

Got blacks drowning like that hedgehog named ---

Shit... drawing a blank. Ain't that ironic?

Why do I know this? I’m smarter than you.

I can speak. Soft lips. I do it better than you.

I can spell. S-P-E-L-L. I do it better than you.

S-P-E-L-L. So much better than you.

S-P-E-L-L. I’m so much better than you.

That’s the truth. I can say it in four different languages.

Veritas, verdad, verite, Paul Pierce.

It’s true, I know more than you know, always do.

Just leave me alone. I’m better than you.

Articulate, erudite, knowledge is power.

But here’s the part I don’t get...

Trump is a prick, and the 43rd president, a bozo. A hick.

The lead democrat don't have her a dick.

So remind me how it is – why we got supremacy?

Cause I string my words well, like Chaucer, like Tennyson?

You can't quite convince me that's my only medicine.

It might be the system white people devour.

Eating up privilege then shitting out guilt.

That's me. I mean, look at me writing this poem.

Like I’m better than anyone. Bull shit. That is wrong.

Damn it. Fuck you. You ass hole. You liar.

You’ve got all this power. But you’re so fucking tired.

Pretending to be fighting for something you need.

For justice. Liberation

Hell bound up in nothing but greed.

A hunger for honor. Respect. To impress them.

To show them I’m special.

Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me.

That’s all these words say.

To prove them all right and show them I’m special.

I've got no more questions 'bout broke self or broke nation.

But here’s a solution: Decriminalization

Decriminalization of the young black body.

Get that shit through congress. I promise you’ll fail.

I’m just being honest 'bout the bubonic unveiled.

The black plague adapts to send all men to hell.

But nothing can stop it. No meters or marches.

This year, Gray is the same shade of darkness.

No drug in his blood. In his brain or his pockets.

Don't say decriminalization will stop this.

Love me. Love me. Love me.

Do you hear that?

You hear something?

Who is that? White man or black?

Sounds kind of the same when no one calls back.

Are you listening, God? Does anyone hear me?

We’re all screaming the same thing.

We’re all screaming the same fucking thing.

Why can’t we hear it?

Love me. Love me. Love me.

Just listen. You’ll hear it.

Then call back.

Say you hear it. Just tell them you hear it.

#BlackLivesMatter