#NaPoWriMo - Eight | 7:30

Eight times. 

Barely charged with the crime. 

I said eight times and he probably won't do time. 

POW!

"Pull your pants up!" they said. 

"Get your education!" they said

"Don't mouth off, be respectful."

Respectable negros still end up dead.

I'm not respectable so... 

POW!

I was told that I should vote this time around. 

If more blacks got out to vote, things would be different. 

What don't you understand? 

Voting doesn't keep me from 6 feet underground

But...  

POW!

I'm tired. 

But every time I see my people killed

I get a little wired. 

Instead of being fired? 

These cops continue to fire. 

POW!

Don't matter if I run away. 

Apparently my black ass has

Made him feel his life is in danger

Instead of calling it racism and 

White anger

They raise their guns and 

POW!

Now I'm falling to my knees. 

Because despite my three degrees,

They still see me as just another nigger. 

I don't know if I'm on my way to praying

Or to just laying here

Another black man's life taken by 

A cops trigger. 

POW! 

It's getting hard to breathe. 

I don't know if it's the weight of 

being black on my chest or

The exit wounds. 

Am I the next black man 

a cop is sending to his tomb?

My breath is getting shallow. 

I can't breathe. 

I don't see my life flashing before me

I just see the muzzle fla...

POW!

This one hurt y'all. 

But I must keep fighting

Even though these bullets keep biting

Away at black skin. 

Why is my melanin

Seen as my sin? 

All I want is to be...

POW!

Free. 

Eight times. 

Barely charged with the crime. 

I said eight times and he probably won't do time.

#NaPoWriMo - Dream Music | 6:30

You're a dream. 

A premonition of a future written in possibility.

I go to sleep and visit you every night

Just to experience you again

And again...

I see you as God intended. 

Naked. 

If only I could make the shape of these words

Match your curves...

Even your walk speaks to me in cursive

And truth be told?

I just wanna read the Diary 

Written by your footsteps. 

See...

Your stride teaches me words

That's haven't been invented yet. 

Your heart sings a song to me

That hasn't been written yet. 

And your voice is a melodic tone

That's off the scale. 

No note compares. 

And every night...

You stride your fine ass back into my dreams

Footsteps writing music that we haven't 

Even began to make. 

I take naps just to peek at

What we could have. 

See...

You're a dream. 

A premonition of a future written in possibility.

A song that hasn't been written yet

For me. 

#NaPoWriMo - #BlackLivesMatter | 5:30

Peaceful melanin. 

Skin weaponized since I'm black. 

My Black Life Matters. 

#NaPoWriMo - Teach Me | 4:30

Teach me

Show me how to kiss you so deeply that 

Gravity reverses and that floating feeing

Becomes real. 

Instruct me on what it takes to make your lips and mine congruent. 

Show me how to love you so deeply I can

Remove your pain through osmosis. 

And I still wouldn't be close enough to you. 

God shines through you

And I just want to bask in it. 

No shadows...

Show me how to take your breath away

So I can breathe for you. 

See...

Depth and you are synonymous. 

And I could spend my life exploring 

And die a happy man knowing

I was your #1 Student. 

#NaPoWriMo - Kiss Me | 3:30

Kiss me so deeply

That I'll know what it's like to

Dine on perfection. 

#NaPoWriMo - Friendship | 2:30

True, real friendship is

Letting them swipe through your pics

Without stopping them 

#NaPoWriMo - April's Fool | 1:30

We met in the Spring

You were the flower brought forth in May

We hit it off quickly as you shaped a place in my life

We joked about you being my wife and by June?

We were singing each other's tune. 

I laughed at your corny jokes...

You were nervous about meeting my folks but by 

July? You were at the family BBQ. 

The sun shone on us like 20 acres of field

And our love the crop yield...bountiful. 

August came and it was more of the same

"Y'all lame" is what our friends said. 

They were just jealous. 

Autumn brought September

That's when I knew I'd fallen in love with you

Like the leaves fall from the trees. 

October we removed each other's masks. 

Not the kind for Halloween but

The form of masks that hide things. 

See...we were bare with each other. 

November was when it started. 

The heat from our relationship departed and

Cold set in. 

I reflected on being thankful and grateful for you but

In December you became distant and hateful. 

Instead of a Merry Christmas

You were distant and listless. 

In January I sent her a letter with a picture and said

"I miss this."

Her non response felt like seeing her ass

And hearing her say "Kiss this." 

So much for her being my New Year Resolution

It was a cold winter. 

February is the love month but all I felt was a broken heart. 

It's when she said "I think we should depart from each other."

I fought for her but it's hard to contain running water. 

And water ran from my eyes all through March. 

She was gone. 

Blooming flowers didn't have the same vivid colors. 

The sun didn't seem as bright and warm. 

The morning dew was cold instead of cool. 

And to this day, I'm still her April Fool.