Hope the reflections bring about respect
Thinking about those back in the days
make me wonder about what’s next
You for it
Or just flex?

It was bad back then, no lie
Gangs, drugs, rap music, and some guns
But we had “stop the violence” movements
we were able to move around, some fun

There was beef,
legit or not
But there was a sense of order
we had spots

There was community
and a sense of pride
but somewhere in between Harold and Hadiyah,
It died

And music went from
Common to a mindless behavior
as Jesus alternated
between a charm and a Savior,
either way Jesus ain’t gone save us
We are responsible for applying the lessons that the story of Jesus gave us

I remember when you were “bogus” or “out of pocket”
and somebody “called it” for the blocks
When you were able to post up on the porch,
a legitimate neighborhood watch

We used to kick it
whether you were “sent off” or “on a mission”
and the real D-Boys wanted to do something good
and we listened…

and I miss it

Social media has made us anti-human
propaganda got us believing the hype,
undue influence
opposition prepared post put us in the paint,
from righteous to ruin
The media, the madness, this mess,
congruent

So now we “turn up” instead of turn out
we went from “burnt up” to burnt out
and the old heads are tired
Everything they worked for,
didn’t really work out

We brought into being independent
without independence
and such we scattered about our history
without any dependents
from the first descendants
to being first offender defendants

Ignorant

I remember when hustle was hard work
until you came up
That was how we came up
now the hustle is to hustle
Rob, Steal, and Kill
that’s how they came up,
then call it “squad”
so they gang up
bad representation,
society blame us

Indignant

And still we skirt the real issues
fighting for freedoms in no mans land
400 years of hurt and still mis-used
Stuck in a religious time warp,
No matter what God ole masta gave us,
them still his views

And our inheritance
became irrelevant
It was once intelligence
became benevolence
feasting from the rations of a welfare portion
that’s not heaven-sent

So the “I’m so” is the “oke doke”
a nice distraction for the brunt of jokes
and debating legislating plants
is the blunt of smoke

We still got probationary voting rights
Evil is evil, you can’t vote it right
the miseducation taxed Lauryn Hill
and making niggaz laugh axed Dave Chappelle
what story shall we tell?…

Too many babies, too many babies
burying children, too many lately
Too many ways to explain it off
who do we blame, it’s OUR own fault,
We brought into it, WE brought them to it
WE have to call it off!

So,

I hope these reflections bring about respect
the good ole days are gone,
What’s next?

-see

©2014 Cornelious “See” Flowers
– @seethepoet