(A TALE OF KINGS, QUEENS AND THE BRUTALITY OF REALITY)
A COLLABORATION FEATURING LANA JOSEPH
L
I need no filter
I learned to stand while falling down
Always smiling just to get through
I learned early in life justice wasn’t blind it was bought
This is why I run thin lines with blank sheets
I actually enjoy walking out of boundaries
I am partial to walking streets with no chalk
outlining dead bodies and purple marks
J
What filter... I lost mine in these streets.
Strong like Cuban coffee I expel this verbology like linguistic Tai Chi.
Calming for a worried soul... I drop closed mentalities into a deep dark hole.
Where I come from shit wasn't easy, I the calming, I the Savage beast.
Existing in planes outside of mere human visibility, inter-dimensional, I the nigga who became a king.
Once just a cog I formally known as man became a walking God.
A moment of calm lingering in the garden... A figure superimposed on a park bench... Blood turning brown on a sidewalk the testimony to who and what we've become.
L
It is true my beloved brother and King…
family and friends are being snuffed away--- here today
Gone TODAY, not just gone tomorrow, that is not the reality
I sit here thinking about my dearly departed cousin
I planned to see him and my PA family soon
We got the tragic phone call late at night, cuz is dead
Shot 3 times through his closed door with lead
The tragedy is that he was murdered on the heels of my Grandfather
My gentle giant was given a lethal dose of morphine
These phenes don’t care about human beings
Money and greed is the evil poison ruling the world
this solar existence of mine continues to prove that my black is deadly
Way too many scenarios where our people are checkin’ outta here
I realize in life, we must stay focused...
FOCUSED...
cause life is not about hocus pocus
J
Such a sad thing to hear of your tragedies... The crushing weight of all these travesties.
This world so promising having become a killing floor... Splintered souls glittering... Sharpened shards penetrating so deeply.
My son having gone before me... My brother... Two young Queen's I met on my journey murdered savagely.
And here we are living to open our eyes another day... So much hope as the waking sun breaks through the majestic trees.
The smell of ozone after a thunderstorm... So much beauty in the midst of all this confusion and brutality... We the seed of life sprouting from this fertilizer ground.
Our ancestors the dust that we are created from... The air that we breathe.
So many who only see the material while missing what's tangible... Struck blind by those standing on pulpits selling insanity... Omnipotence but a thought away... If only we would part the veil... We harboring magic in every beat of our hearts... So afraid of who we really are as we embrace these false identities... Shadows of what we could have been... We these lost Lions living as fallen sheep... Our black skin covering our shame... It's enough to drive a Hue-man insane... Make a hue-woman shun her true name...
This hocus pocus such a crushing reality.
L
Thank you brother King for your acknowledgement of lost souls and for standing tall for me…
for us… for we… for all… for everyone who have not arrived where we are
in a spiritual realm of consciousness… one must remove the veil of the liars lair
Choices are given, yet some are indeed covering shame within our black skin
I work tirelessly doing my best to uplift our Kings and Queens to a higher level of self
Until we, the adults master love, and God and our god within power that raises souls for good
and not false pride that comes before the fall, I keep getting up with gratitude for being blessed another day to love on my family, eXtended family and true fierce friends...
Until we understand to differentiate between our Creator’s voice and the evil one’s...
many more lives will be swallowed up by steel weapons for mass destruction
Yes beloved King, our Ancestors planted the good seeds in us and left us blueprints
We can certainly follow those traits to help us refrain from mirrored illusions
They are indeed watching us all, as we stand tall in their shoes walking a thousand miles
Some to nowhere he or she is going fast; we must take the reigns willingly, carrying mindsets
FREE… free of negativity and toxicity… to lead... one must follow the great ancestral wisdoms
Until we, the adults fight to protect young brains from lethal doses of hate, crime and shame
it will be much more difficult... to eradicate our communities from incessant red rain.
Written by JERALD HAMZAHFARUQ MURPHY and Lana Joseph.
