Rise

Rise, my brothas, rise

Like the Sun that sets on souls in slums, on benches bumping gums, on streets packing guns and those on the run



Like a Phoenix from the burning ashes of corpses and crosses, another person lost is a cost we cant afford. Still, our loss is ignored



Rise my brothas, rise like mercury, temperatures climb and freeze in time. Thirsty for knowledge with a squeeze of lime. Brothas out in the grime making dime off of rhyme and crime. Forgetting schooling, still fueling a need to succeed in a crooked world of greed



Rise my brothas, rise like MC So & SO to the top of the charts. Winning our hearts with tracks of ho smacks as our culture flow slips through cracks of establishment sidewalks. No one listens when a man of pride talks. Just Pimp strides and glocks, outlines of white chalk



Rise my brothas, rise like a fist and twist your grill to a grimace and topple this menace of government. Another brotha sent to war, another mother bent to wail for another son that's sent to war or jail. Can't tell where we went wrong. Revolution used to be the song, now its "bling-bling"ing to belong. How far we've gone.

Trade off

Reading quite a bit of Utopian and Distopian fiction has gotten me thinking about what I would give up to end suffering in the world. In these books, people have no idea what they do not have yet everything is peaceful and joyful. What would you give up to ensure that everyone on the planet was happy? Art, love, emotion, pain...