scar city, baby
scratch that
star city.
A math class, ms. tate say i won’t pass,
fixed my report cards, and my old man kick my ass,
`you ain’t nothing, nah a fucking waste of time:
so slow? would’ve stayed back home, had i known, wasting mine’,
one mind was like, `fuck that', hit the block, and build,
with older kids, so real, they’d hold steel,
and fast, to rep, it’s bug:
jesus pieced up, but crossing them’s a slug.
fuck it, crackers hated us, ‘hood niggas hated us,
parents spoke loud, ain’t know what to say to us.
stayed up. couldn’t wait to bus, catch that, 43C,
ran verses at track meets, ate tracks when gatts’ speak,
adobe, get the picture, homie? i attack beef,
full a rap sheet, masterfully, not exactly the smooth:
witnessed diamonds in the rough, become they most beautiful,
ever i seem nervous, ‘cause i know what i can do to you.
I been slick, been shady, since gods raised me,
and honeys called me, `midnight’ or `tarbaby’
the bluest eye, don’t it hide the greenest?
beloved, if paradise’s the beast’s belly who defeat us?
dreams deceive us: their world an invisible maze,
gryphen: minotaur, feel them, six million ways.
i lay low, learned they rhythm, they play like drum roll,
repetitive, that beat said it: if, you don’t sleep, competitive
niggas,’ gon test you, now they jesuit, that strap bless you,
silence, became it like death do, i walked when it,
goes dark, ‘till spirits spark in it: stay targeted,
why these blocks start shifting?
shit, them kids switch up, and i start to learn,
my light’s a tunnel, training thoughts to work,
in tune, with soul beings, holding heat, son, know these,
niggas beat furnaces ‘cause they hearts beat coldly.
mixed records with a kid, so shattered,
he answers to `splinter’, shocked when he ratted.
skip trial? no. darwin and calculus, had me doubting this,
universal law, saw a mixed blessings when i beat that charge.
six suppressed evidence, on jealous-ness,
promise to dead the kid, that shit, seeded madness,
i studied fame and rap classics,
then grew, disjointed, distracted, my flow cactus.
deserted, and faded, light refracted, every action,
have opposite reaction, man, no spark stay buried.
karma’s a bitch, and happily married,
digging her’s styll though, 360, so scary.
beating odds, slow and deep, put thoughts on repeat,
then lost, ten years asleep, this my father’s dream?
here monsters creep; green eyes see a young professional,
gentleman persona, take breaths like comas.
yeah, shorties look up to me, not knowing i faced one to three,
honey’s crush suddenly, ‘tween sex and hate, stunting me,
vex, i wouldn’t wife’em: no ring, no hyphen,
too attached, to change, balling, smoking hash, i been.
fucking confused, knowing it’s over fast,
‘see soldiers of love: shoot for stars, and kill for cash.
feel it right? i know. what a blast.
even friends act stranger, and stranger, pre-ten, it be,
love, act bug to creep up, like centipede.
think i don’t feel the sting, or the walls closing in,
here it go again, yeah, i’m ready to go,
these memory, though, have me flying out my mind,
to start seeing things i’m here trying to describe.
questions whispered through reality and time:
`was it 828 plus 202 into ways to die?’
didn’t pull it, recognize the test’s divine.
but would’ve stayed back home had i known i’d sprint that aisle.
screaming: no leaving, no changing grades,
and father time curse me with wisdom and age.
where they put me at is colder than despair,
‘cause burn hope, smoke’s a glowing maze, know it well
no fear: ain’t it home sweet home?
oh canada. we breathe and zone.
shadow residents, patients and a citizens,
star city, circle that, pi got us, chasing death again.
so ‘till it add up, careful on the path, blood:
sheer wolves, stitch lyrics brilliance can’t touch.
We dream to see it, beat a 1000 times, to be the,
hundred yard dash, lead cowards by kilometres.
who ain’t often with me, but still in my heart, engraved,
i carry the torch to spark they flame.
it’s one.
