Mar 13, 2022
I was sharpened in the streets
It’s how i cut words to the beat
I’ve been beat till I couldn’t creep
But I crawled so now can speak
You beat me in the homes
In the juvenile hall’s
the institution’s padded wall’s
the cell’s the system’s hells
as a child with no crime
I watched you in real time
I’ve seen your rapists
You’re killers your thieves
Why would you put them all
together with me
I acted as a child because
I was
but it didn’t take long
for me to lose all the trust
Of all uour rules
So I played your game to find my way out
I could never do, to you
what seemed easy for you to do to me
To beat, endanger and isolate
An American child.
That’s just the way it was.