Plainly Stated
by Tre G.
Copyright: © 2008
Plainly stated,
I’m getting older - bolder
Maybe, a little wiser
And I’m realizing being a soldier
Doesn’t mean you have to be hard and callous
But disciplined and mature
And just because you’re prepared for war
Doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go.
You see I’ve written too much
To simply be a poet,
Yet not quite enough to be an author,
My thoughts- despite how inspiring-
Haven’t enough structure to be considered arguments
So to say I’m an essayist would be an overstated compliment
I’m just a man,
That can’t be defined by what I do,
I’m just someone who understands
Life is complicated enough
Without our own incompetence,
And morals compromised by desires
Pave pathways to perdition,
Listen, I know “normal” folks
Don’t talk like this,
But maybe that’s why most men
Seem to lose it in the long run,
And I would love to offer you thirty days of madness
But I’ve just started to make sense
Outta the last thirty years of insanity
God has handed me
Grace….
Gradually,
So I’ve managed to get older- bolder
Maybe, a little wiser
And I’m realizing being a soldier
Doesn’t mean you have to be hard and callous
But disciplined and mature
And just because you’re prepared for war
Doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go.
And no, I don’t have all the answers
In fact I’ve got God in an interrogation room
Under a spotlight spitting out the plans to my destiny
I’ve got no secret recipe for success
Except failure,
No philosophy on life,
And there’s only a few things I tell little boys desiring to be men;
When your level of maturity offers you a platform
To teach responsibility to those around you
You’ve become a man.
Learn to stand with your head up,
If God intended for men to look down
He’d have put our eyes on our feet,
And heaven underground,
Seek favor not fame,
Don’t be afraid of change,
Everything will, and does,
Embrace love wherever you find it,
And leave yourself reminders
Of how bright life can be
So you have flashlights to see
When the sunshine is gone,
I might not be here at dawn
But hopefully,
You’ll get older- bolder
Maybe, a little wiser
Realizing being a soldier
Doesn’t mean you have to be hard and callous
But disciplined and mature
And just because you’re prepared for war
Doesn’t necessarily mean
You have to go.
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Anti-People Person
by Ion
Copyright: © 2008
I walk down the shopping aisles
searching for headphones
Fitty caps
And comic books
Because I don’t want to listen to you speak,
I can look black, thuggish and angry,
And use the reading material as an out from talking to you.
An yea—some people call me an asshole
but I prefer to be labeled anti-social
because I don’t want any
eye contact, boring conversations, or other bullshit.
I’m the kinda of guy that gets pissed off on a subway
if I’m sitting down and you’re standing in front of me smelling like ass juice
and you’re just way too cool to hold the handle bar so your junk
keeps thrusting into my face at each location stop.
And even though you could clearly tell by the Headphones
on full blast that I didn’t want to be bothered but
you ask me for directions, however I’ll still be nice enough to say
“You start by getting the fuck out of my face and going that way..”
So you can imagine why I make tourists nervous.
I hold grudges with chicks before, during, and after sex
but when we break up I’ll still give you a birthday gift
of cheap dollar store toilet tissue and when you ask, “what’s this for?”
I’ll say, “For all the shit you put me through.”
Thats why some people call me an Asshole
but I prefer to be labeled anti-social
because I don’t want any
eye contact, boring conversations, or other bullshit.
If I was the last man on earth like Will Smith in I am Legend
in my ending I would have been chilling in my basement bomb shelter
that only has room for one while the krumping zombie monsters wutang’d against
the woman and her son. That’s what they get for eating my bacon...
I was saving that bacon.
Besides I’d be perfectly fine carrying conversations with Fred
and hitting on the mannequin woman in the video store...
cause “all I ever wanted was for someone to say nothing”.
On Facebook I’ll deny your friend request
since we don’t talk in person so what makes the internet any different?
and if you send me an instant message
you’ll receive my “go away” away message.
Even tho I’m actually there.
Doctors diagnosed me as a sociopath
but I really just follow my own path towards society.
So I randomly Harlem shake at wakes
and listen to my Ipod during funerals wishing it would hurry
cause I got more important shit to do.
An yea—some people call me an asshole
but I prefer to be labeled anti-social
because I can’t don’t want any
Eye contact, boring conversation, or other bullshit.
I’m the only guy that still goes to the movies by himself & plots world domination.
I studied Doctor Doom’s philosophies
cause super villainy is fun, and I got time to kill.
But giving back is important to me so as a test of great faith
I chose to work at the DMV and spend the day saying,
Mam, you need to be on line 3 with form A,
this is line D and thats form A-13
“but I just came from that line"
Thats the wrong form, line 3 Mam
“I don’ts see why you can’t just”
Mam line 3
“all I need to do is”
LUNCH BREAK, find someone who cares.
And I even remember when I developed this anti-people behavior
it was when I was 11, I pushed my imaginary friend down a flight of stairs
because I specifically needed the red crayon
and dude wouldn’t share... I never saw him again after that.
That’s why some people call me an asshole,
But I prefer to be labeled anti-social
Because I don’t want any
Eye contact, boring conversation, or other bullshit.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is that
There’s no reasons or hidden truths
As to why I’d rather gargle Pinesol and listen to singing by Corbin Bleu
then to hear you talk about your feelings or why I’m hoping that
Superman will put his Fortress of Solitude up for sale during the recession.
So ladies, it doesn’t mean I want you to move in
If I say “I love you too” cause I thought we were talking about the band.
And dudes, I don’t mean to be rude when I use the urinal farthest from you.
I just assume you were on to catch a predator and don’t trust you.
I’m an anti-people person
and I’m just trying to be me.
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Earthling Alien
by Tommy D.
Copyright: © 2008
Fuck...I guess I have no other choice
America..., I am the
neo
Blackface -
the one
morphed out of smiling exposed teeth
as gaps between served as reminders
of bars and spit
the language anguish amongst prison communities
I am the big
show during the evening – the main event –
why have you created me?
bearing the burden
of bruised lips - black
and mild mannered
mourner of mad militants
I can do nothing,
but
answer your
c
all
as an
angrier
audience
standing in the middle of pride
tapping on my tongue to rhythmic feet
of bamboozled artists
I now
spit through the same bars of restriction
listen, to my slavish-less syllables dripping from my saliva
sunken, I’ve sank into the suction of my own desire
to smile, seething breaths seeping self for you to see
this reflection seems to be put on the shelf, I’ve shut my own identity
from
me?...
I am the earthling alien
indicated by my intent to walk in between
sitting postured stragglers of audacity
no hope – the dope packaged
plastic bags
under their eyes
sleeping under the darkened sky
sniffing on powdered stars
getting low
since the streets are all that they k(no)w
high
stakes expression places
the bounty on lips
I’ve kissed captives – no holds barred-
and fallen under the weight
of blinking eyelids
shut behind Sector 7
please don’t blink anymore
don’t just
glance at
me
I’m here
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To My #1 Hater
by Tre G.
Copyright: © 2008
You say I'm unprofessional;
not on the same level
as my fellow poets,
and if I'm a rhyme writer
than my poems don't show it.
You say my vocab is trash,
and laugh at my thought process,
claiming it lacks depth.
You turn a deaf ear to what I'm spittin'
sayin' you would listen
if my writtens was hittin'.
Dismissin' any display of growth you note,
"I could write one hot verse too
if I wrote a million in my lifetime."
And normally,
I wouldn't reply,
nor give you placement in my conversations
but latly you been gettin' under my skin.
See, I understand that grunts and generals
rarely view circumstances the same.
While you are waitin' for progress
I am an agent of change.
So what you call a casualty,
I call expendable,
and while you focus on the battle,
I'm lookin at the war,
so while you just
fire rounds into the darkness,
I understand what I'm fightin' for,
or should I say,
why I'm writin' more?
Till I'm full with the power of a titan
more potent than a lightin' bolt.
And I gather the point of ya problem
cause hey,
I don't like some folks.
And everybody's entitled
to their own opinion,
but yours?
Is overstated!
Like every time you hear my name
you stop to explain,
"Yo, dude iz overrated!"
and they know you hatin'
"Chasin hubcaps attached to cars...."
my grandmother would say,
"....dogs can't catch'em
so they run behind'em and bark."
And I won't start with all the clichés
associated with those that hate,
cause I'll be the first to admit,
most of what you say is true,
but that's why you exist,
cause a man's biggest critic
is often his own inner view.
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