I don't think you are ready
Ready to hear what I have to say
What my face has to say
I want to say what is on my face
Will you listen...
For my barren soul stands facing the heavens
In search of salvation
My soul walks across desert plains
Listening to the sound of the wind
In stereo effect surround sounds
Of splashing pain that stings like freezing rain
Reigning over the two sides of my life
One, my flesh that betrays my mind at times.
It tries to define the thin line between
Truth and lie in this world that lives to get by
On reality-TV where real life is fake
And living in the real is escaped.
Two, is my soul...
In this world of false faces, and false prophets
Who are only interested in your paper
Running capers by passing the plate
And if you don't drop a dollar
You might not make it into the gate
I must stay awake
I must… stay... awake
I must stay alive...strive to survive
In a face off between gladiators
Trying to endure the blows of everyday
Beat downs in this arena called life
Which is played like a cheated card game
So I keep my eyes on how it's played
Swimming with sharks
I make due with what I am dealt
Masterfully I spread 'em and change my face to look smart
Because I know already that this isn't fair
So, I man up, assess the dealing and act like I got a pair
Let's see, I got seven hearts, no diamonds, five clubs for luck
Because with my one spade I am expected to give up
But if I play this right
I might come out tight
Tightly this cat got my game in what I call the "choker"
Because he tried to get me by playing his "Joker"
Man, my face was like what the heck…
That ain't even supposed to be in the deck
So I do what I must and renege on the third book
By throwing out my luck hoping it'll get me off the hook
Off the hook enough so that I can make board
To avoiding being set,
Being set by those looking to hoard my soul
So, to change the game, I put on my poker face
Just to throw the man off my game in this race
Where race is nothing and...yet it's everything
I mean try walking in my shoe and you'll see what I mean…
You might see fathers being shot and blood spilt on foreign sands and...
Young men killed and filled with lead for having a gun,
Oops! I meant a wallet in their hands
Mothers working four jobs just to make ends meet
While daddy has to works six because he screws every end he meets
He's got young faces all over town
More than the sands that cover this ground
Who grow up wondering why he was never around
Now this face I call it the black face
The face that has been filled with hate
That I have learn to carry like the weight
Of the world on my shoulders
Weighing me down like boulders
Tied around my ankles, where every step forward
Feels like five steps backward
Moving and striving to stay on the right track
I never look back
Back at the faces I leave lying in the sand keeping
All things facing forward
While Surviving this gravitational spin
Of this planet above my throat
Remembering the time where I was brought here on a boat
From freedom to slavery
From Kingdoms to penitentiary
I remove my face to keep them from lying to me
In this twisted world where nothing is ordinary
A place where freedom requires enslavement
And you have to be a slave to be free
But I know differently so
I throw my face down just so that I can
Kiss the ground that I walk on and
At the same time I can watch my own back
Because not even my brother has that
It leaves me wiping away my face to hide my tears
To tuck away my fears because for years
They have flowed for those with swollen bellies
While food and gold is outsourced
Outsourced is the new synonym for "You're screwed"
You only survive if you're shrewd
Otherwise you get shown the door
And jobs are given to those who work to be poor
Babies left sleeping on floors
For the motherland they show their faces
Saying lets help the black faces by ending starvation
With contraceptives to stop their creation
Because if they don't have them
Then there is no need to feed them
If only I didn't have to wear this face
I wouldn't have to say the things that I say
But the fact is…it is my face.
So I hold it out in front of me
Just so I can see what everyone else see
When they look at my face
You see changing places is easy
Try changing faces and see what I see.
© 2007 Tshombe (the Poet) Kai|Poetry
