why i write

 

i write for the youth                                                                                                                                                                                    who never laid in the grass and looked up at the clouds

for youth who hide on the inside

when the teacher asks for volunteers to read out loud

i write for youth who ain’t never even looked up at the clouds

without expecting to feel rain

i write for lil girls who must double dutch near bloodstains

and don’t know their father’s name

i write to show the youth

that there are far more important things to think and talk about

than the beef between nas/ jay z or when the new jordans coming out

i write cause i want to be more important to my son than his pokemon collection

i write to help the youth find their direction

i write to explain the pain or put the happiness in words

i write cause God is 1st, Nnam’ is 2nd, and i’m a close 3rd

i write to give a voice to all the beautiful everyday things

like birds flying south and leaves turning colors

that get over looked

i write for all the fiends who said they’d never get hooked

i write for all the nephews that know the pain

of seeing their favorite Uncle go from being one of the Koolest Kats on earth

to just a junkie always begging for change

i write for relatives who can’t relate to one another

for lil girls who were looking for love and found themselves teen mothers

i write for the cycle of poverty that never ends in the pj’s

i write for grown men who prey on young girls these days

i write for all the rodney kings they didn’t get on tape

for all the lil’ girls that have to go to court and prove they’ve been raped

i write for the beautiful artist, singers, poets and scholars

whose talent warrants that of athletes’ dollars

i write cause a man with a basketball ain’t never been a threat

thats why allen & kobe can cash million dollar checks

i write for everyone

from unemployed college grads to drunk dads and babies mommas

who want a better tomorrow but must still deal with yesterday’s drama

i write for all the yesterdays and tomorrows

innocent men are going to spend behind bars

i write for jail cells that are filled before the prisons are even built

i write for all those who see prisons as businesses

and wardens as CEOs

so lets build theses prisons and fill these prisons

and see how many minorities they can hold

i write for parents that don’t have good parenting skills

the ones that buy outfits rather than paying bills

i write for all the unaccounted hours

fathers spend away from their children

and all the bill money spent on buying drinks for women

i write for all the family trees that died when grandparents did

i write for the togetherness that was displayed when the grandparents lived

i write to tell tale of black boys like Donald Goines and Richard Wright did so well

i write cause i was also born on Nov 16th like NOC and Chinua Achebe

and when you hear poems like I Wanna

and read books like Things Fall Apart they stay with you forever

i write cause the words are all that i have at times

and not a day goes by when the mission isn’t on my mind

i write cause God’s thoughts enter my mind in the form of rhyme

and my minds rhymes take you to the confines of grimy urban places

some of which ain’t never been seen by white faces

so when i address the fact

that so many black teens have never seen their father’s faces

they label me racist

so i write

i write to share my love affair of words with the children

because God is on my tongue and the world is in need of healing

i write cause the children didn’t understand

the depth behind the deaths of big and pac

i write cause there is no more room at all on the walls

for RIP man man - & - mouky on my block

i write cause there are times at night

when i can’t see any signs of life in the children

i write cause i know underneath all those drugs are some beautiful children

children who just want to laugh & grin and enjoy life again

i write for the gunshots i hear that still echo in my soul

 that tell me somewhere a black life is being stole

i write to make a tomorrow come to this brother that ain’t got no future

i write for the fake charges filed when they say your son is the shooter

i write for the better days that go unseen and tomorrows that never come

i write for all the mothers that had their children killed by guns

for all the i love you’s fathers never say to their sons

 

al 11/04