Hope 4 Sell (Poetic)
I had day dream at work,
I think it was worth it,
With all the things going on with this earth,
The weight of the world and all it’s girth,
Despair closing in like a shirt, So this mental swerve was perfect,
I saw myself giving words on the nearby corner,
Pouring out everything inside of me like a donor,
Trying to verbally paint a Sistine, Picasso, or at least a Mona,
See, I wanted to give hope,
And it’s MY daydream, so best believe it was dope,
And I had like, a generation stopping by my post for the quotes,
Giving God the wheel, God’s will as I spoke,
And I saw spirits receiving it,
I admit, it was brief but it, seem to hit for the grieving kids,
And those needing it, so I breathed it in,
You gon’ get this hope!
That’s when a brother in the front spoke,
He looked like we both had the same mother though,
Like, if I had siblings, he legit would’ve had my brother’s nose,
But his eyes told me he was no kin of mine,
He threw skittles and a toy gun at my feet,
An aspirator spray painted “I can’t breathe”,
A football, a bank statement and some unwashed sheets,
An a pocket atlas that cracked as soon as it hit the street,
He said “You gon’ get this hope? How?
I didn’t hear about hope when I was tryna find out how I got this broke?
You see what’s happening out here?
I’m drowning in the pain they say I’m supposed to be ok with,
And I’m supposed to trust our president to change it,
But I ain’t rich and I can’t change skin,
And since hope comes with a passport I don’t qualify for and a cost I can’t afford,
Tell me where hope is then?
Tell me why I should have hope?”
I saw the anger I had in myself,
I saw the pain that went unfelt,
The need to understand that someone both understands will actually help,
It was then when I noticed his shirt,
A bloody whole where his heart was and growing stain,
Emotions on the sleeve next to the pain,
Words on the front in the frame saying “Don’t Tell me how to Grieve”
But his eyes said “I need help”,
I hugged him,
I told him that I didn’t know him, but I genuinely loved him,
And I might not always be healthy enough mentally to listen to your soul,
But my soul has been getting fed lately, so lean on me,
I told him “Your voice is as loud as mine is,
Your story, timeless,
Your destiny, only as free as your mind is,
You are NOT your circumstances,
You are the moment when you’re all that’s left standing,
You are the cameras taking pictures of what your life will be, so what do you chose to see?
There’s a lot of hurt here, there’s so much grief and pain,
I see it, but know that in my closet hang shirts with a similar stain,
And mine will never look just like yours but know that in order to change you need to heal first,
Otherwise you’ll put on a new day and the pain will remain,
Let me talk to you,
You need to know that there is no other you out there,
And I’ve read books by people who have been inches from death and sustained,
Reinvented their lives and changed,
But you gotta monitor what you keep in your brain,
Your mind is your battlefield,”
He wept as we embraced,
One man fighting to keep it together, the other fighting to find a reason to try,
One man, trying to impart life, the other just wanting to die,
I never saw the end of that daydream,
And I know it may seem like all we as a people seem to do is break things,
But look closer,
We’re life’s composers,
Directing a sympathy of events, scripting our lives as we play to the tones of our tears,
We’re builders,
Hammering history to the fabric of time itself,
You think you have no say in that? Your voice doesn’t have power?
Look what it’s doing to your life right now,
That same voice that is slowly destroying your might,
Is the same voice that can change tune and save your life,
Ask Weldon Long,
If you don’t have hope, you’re a lost sailor on a rough sea with his last meal,
Hope is learning how to fish and fighting to live,
No hope, is staying unemployed because the last three interviews didn’t go well,
Hope is hopping on youtube and learning a new skillset on your own,
You have to make the change you want to see,
You have to become today the person you want to be tomorrow,
And when it gets unbearable, know you’re not alone,
My God genuinely loves you,
My heart goes out to you,
I hope this message can lyrically tug you if I can’t physically hug you,
But know you can make it through this,
You will make it through this,
And you gon’ get this hope.
