Diamonds Are Fine Sometimes I feel like a fatherless child Sometimes I feel like a fatherless child Sometimes I feel like a fatherless child A long way from home These women bother me very much Attempting to clutch a man’s constitution with his fruit Manipulate him with his seed These women bother me Call his phone hollering about where you seen him What you seen him doing You was six months pregnant the last time you screwed him Now your babies turning 2 and you still blue and boohooing And boo boo I wonder why it doesn’t bother you To abuse the bond between father and child as you gin with a smile masking the lasting scars of your father being absent when you never wanted that to happen to your baby But lately if he don’t show up when you like If he aint all up and through your life Or if he just can’t see you as his wife Then naw he can’t be involved Naw he can’tdo his job And you don’t want shit but a child support check Just like the rest of your woes is me cronies Absentee baby daddy having homies Once a month posted up at the currency exchange Pushing double wide strollers down them narrow ass lanes Cashing half of what you used to have when he had it to give of his own free will Yes mama you do look as dumb as you must feel So saddled with baggage you dragging to chat up the gaggle of madams So used to living alone that misery instantly follows them wherever they rome But naw they not bitter They aren’t lonely Your baby daddy though He’s only trying to rise to an occasion Requesting your respect not a standing ovation for doing the job he knows he’s supposed to And he don’t need your touching your licking or your cookies Your big piece of chicken or your cookies but obviously you’ve got him confused Thinking that the line next to yours on the birth certificate Means that he doesn’t have to give a shit But when he does When he goes beyond and above the call of duty and everyone around you is well approving Of the love and affection he provides his children You turn from mama to villain Peeling them out of daddy’s arm When to be an affectionate father is all he wants That and to be treated like a man But miss lady you are forcing his hand And there’s only so many sides that this dice can land So what if The next time you trip Allow foul nomenclature to slip from your lips Is the last time he comes to the crib Last time he picks up them kids Now it don’t matter no more whose fault It is The damage has been did The rift has begun separating fathers from daughters and sons And those children arethe ones who suffer Them babies could careless if yall are lovers if they can’t have their father their mother and whatever extra loving you can provide Them babies could give a good goddamn if your re husband and wife If they can’t have their dad when they want when they desire on the fly Or on second and fourth Saturday through Sunday morning preaching Its his weekend to visit You aint picking up the phone you ain’t calling you aint showing up But quick to need this mans assistance when the baby is sick can’t sleep or throwing up You lucky he aint going up side your head You lucky you ain’t end up dead Cause if the tables was turned you would kill for your kids Blood would spill for your kids So why not feel for your kids and for the idea of him standing for his When so many are sitting on their responsibility Cast off your concern of how he aint feeling me and Saturate you self in showering love to these little buds open in trust Your gems are robust gaze in their faces Look in their eyes, give them the time They make diamonds of dime pieces and petty thieves Of club feels and high heels Of stolen glances and fleeting romances till right after your prom dance ends This chance is for you two to give the best you have To the life God has granted you to care for So why not share more of your life with these priceless jewels You may not be the wife but he values you just as valiantly Most high entrusted you to raise the family So don’t stress the in between Take the blessings you receive Stop the vexing over rings and you’ll find that your former pining left you mining the whole time So let their brilliance add resilience you got the bling baby Watch them shine No you may not wear the rings mama but his diamonds should do you fine

MekeTam Sister you been on my mind Oh, sister, we’re two of a kind so Sister I’m keeping my eyes on you I bet you think I don’t know nothing But singing the blues oh, sister have I got news for you I’m something I hope you think that your something too Cause if the stars ever fell from the sky I could still count the stars in your eyes Sparkling in there corners Our love is so much stronger than the bindings of time So much longer than the mind could define Something like divine Like turning water into wine Like turning wining into late night chatter and laughter Like me going out first and you following after only Much much faster Makes me wish we could go back where we first fashioned mudcake recipes When I cried hard God Lawd when mama started whooping yall Till she ended up whooping me When you little bas asses learned to read breaking into my diary Realizing my life was inspiring to someone so special The only ones I could stand next to and know without asking you’d always have my back And be by my side You are a sisters pride Sensing the silliness of men when I had no sense in choosing them Taking my mistakes and using them to your advantage Doing so mych better than you had seen Best believe I learned to weave braid and cut hair So yall would appear Much flier than I did in my high school year book pics You remember them tacky banana clips Them big ass 80’s bangs with the flip We talked shop and talk shit Sweet Shug Averys with grit That sticks to ribs and slides off walls Cleans up eachothers messes catch eachother trust fall Trust fall to come although autumn alters out regal fields And we harvest the yield until the winter white wipes us clean again Until we can play its spring again And sing again Me and you us never part Me and you us be the light inside the stars Me and you us be the spark that jump starts hearts I be with you no matter where you are If God should ever make us part You will never be far from my soul from my thoughts You are the reason I write poetry and go to these open mics Hoping life will open up a doorway to some young black queen In need of a sisters advice and guidance Like be a lion in your fire defiant Reliant though the times they be trying Trying their best to keep you from besting your test Trying their best to keep you and your best from manifesting Trying their best to keep you from becoming the woman that you are meant to be I write selfishly to my sisters for my sisters With the admittance that I have been and played the victim But this isn’t written to wallow with them This is conviction Call it divination Incantation of protection on your right on your left when you step When take a breath When you are too afraid to pray for yourself I will be there to say your hail Mary’s and your aches If I may intercede on behave of my sisters God is listening His I is on the sparrow Sis I am keeping my eye on you I feel you so deep in my marrow That I bleed when you get wounded So I sing you through your bruises with my blues Till we be baptized in his blood and the Red and blue infuse and we are open purple buds Planted in love With pedals that touch, and leaves that clap hands Sense to bend in the wind To rise after giving in Like wildflowers like women Like the oceans and seas we swim in could never pull us asunder You wonderment of woman Reflection of my momma Perfect peace a piece of me And nothing but death could keep me from you No substance to subdue my hope for you to know that you are something too So shake your shimmy till you hear me clear enough I be your S-I-S-T-E-R period

Bad Habit Blues You got me biting on my fingernails The bitches won’t grow back no more You got me biting on my fingernails A chick can’t get a manicure You got me chewing and a nibbling until my fingertips are soar You left your ashes on my comforter Left me an empty pack of Kools You smoked the last short on my Kools and now you wanna smoke my Newports too You left me feening for your nicotine And feeling like your goddamned fool I’m on my second glass of Hennessy And normally I drink Malibu I done sipped the Hen-Dog empty yall You know I drinks Malibu I didn’t start drinking Hennessy untiI started fucking with you There aint no more trees to smoke and now you wanna pack your shit and go You done puffed out all my dro And now you wanna pack your shit and go You took my trees and left me sticks and seeds I cant believe you’d leave me so

CRAZY I remember when, I remember, I remember when I LOST my mind There was something so special about that place Even your emotions have an echo In so much space And when you’re out there, Out there yeah I was out of touch But it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough I just knew too much Well maybe I’m crazy Maybe I’m crazy Maybe I’m crazy Probably……. I’ve become comfortable with my crazy Manic for my man’s voice calling me baby Baby say you hear the angels singing too Got me beaming for you Screaming you name Pounding my walls All that’s missing is the late night emergency calls For missed meds Women we are misled in our own misleading Easy believing the easy bake loving Burning under the incandescence He don’t cake up like a real oven But you rise up under his fluorescence He ain’t husband, close to type or material But you paint him with that presence Why? Cause it’s better than being single Better than being the lonely bitch at Mingles Holding all the drinks and purses Looking thirsty and deserted Dragging coolers when its open bar at the beach You to busy building destination weddings with Wintson Distant daydreaming of cracking coconuts with Kingston When in reality you dippin’ off the dollar menu with them d-boys in the street But hey to each her own choice of poison You pick which dose of delusion you prefer You aint his first and he aint the worst you could do Convince yourself you can introduce him To your parents at the family reunion Bitch yall was just screwing but you Are FUCKING crazy Sometimes misused With a fair share of daddy issues And a boatload of bogus preconceived notions About the psychology of men Diving into relationships like you in summer Olympic training Straining for the stroke Keeping hope afloat So you don’t drown in the disappointment So you always at him, annoying, adamant, nagging him about having it your way Making mountains out of molehills Marriages out of one night stands At first glance he was a gentleman Now he can stand your muthafuckin mama You can stand his 4 baby mamas You gaining relationship weight over the summer Stressing out from the self inflicted drama Now you in line to be baby mama # 5 Baby ‘m gonna have to find a method to the madness Got me feeling schizophrenic I haven’t even managed to finish putting on my pants In preparations for our first date So yeah I am doing way too much way to early But you don’t call and then you show up 45 minutes late With a slew of excuses that remind me of old dude That I just got through screwing with And I know you not him So I should give you the benefit of the doubt But after the jaded escapades Crusades through my heartaches I aint up for to many more hard or easy let downs To let down my guard Yeah the outside is hard Cause the meat is to sweat to be indulged in my the weak and unworthy Already been swindled out of swigs swallows and sips To thirsty throat sips I knew were underserving On the back of turning my back to my own intuition Second guessing circumventing all the good sense I’ve been given So yes it’s a mission almost impossible to keep me from stopping you From doing anything Be it love me or leave It can all just be peace It will be my two cats and me I’ll let their little asses breed and make their kittens my family My god I’ve lost it Another chance at romance So secure in my preserved self defense But closed fists don’t catch no blessings Only knock them out the way So I try to pay attention Pose myself in proper posture as I pray Lord Send me a man One I can actually stand Hell, one who can actually stand me Cause my ass is crazy , Looney Tunes Cheese done slid off my cracker One taco short of a fiesta platter So brother man is gonna have to have traveled some dangerous terrain Experienced some unexplainable pain Given each marred memory a name And listened to them when they whispered to him That I would understand all of where he had been Crazy as it may sound I am good to stick around Fuse to you like Crazy glue Baby crazy is as crazy does Forrest Gump found him someone to love And that man was crazy as a coda bug Now I don’t know very much But I do know what love is And I do know it’s substance And I know there is a husband waiting for every lady That’s designed to be a wife It just seems like in the meantime Well maybe I’m crazy Maybe I’m crazy Maybe I’m crazy Probably…….

Be Thankful Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac Gangsta while walls Tv antenna in the back You may not have a car at all But remember brothers and sisters You can still stand tall Just be thankful for what you’ve got Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac Diamond in the back Sunroof top Diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean Gangsta while walls Tv antenna in the back You may not have a car at all But remember brothers and sisters You can still stand tall Just be thankful for what you’ve got Diamond in the back Sunroof top Diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean Ooh, ooh, ooh (REPEAT) Though you may not sit In the freshest of whips Pushing 22’s on voggs 808 bumping out the windows You may not have a car at all You might be running late waiting on the Marta But remember brothers and sisters, You can still stand tall Diamond in the back Sunroof top Diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean Ooh, ooh, ooh (REPEAT 4X)

Family Ties Came up quick like biscuit mix, instant grits and grand-mama's shrimp, fried in cast iron skillets boiling chitterlings weening little ones with pennies and brandy pullin out bones that tender gums can’t stand from their bits of catfish step up to sit down on big mama's mattress kissing her goodnight telling her goodbye before the last time she shuts her eyes I am amassed of Masses and the will of Wilson's the heart of Carters and the depth of Wells Draine's and Parker's Reverends and authors unruly daughters over worked fathers mother's who bother very little with bottles of perfume children toddle through every room Except the room where little sister was lost swear you get cold soon as you pass the threshold so some boundaries don't get crossed precious life laid at the cross born by our family ties and the cost of time is more valued and less available As the years go by It seems that we are nothing special most times but together we shine like the diamonds clustered on the finger of my mother's hand beckoning me home again like Sankofa to the motherland so close knitted we fitted to show all the swells and dips of our make up take up raising each others children tend open soars and coax a healin' from understanding the strength of God and if you gone cry go outside let your tears water the sod and let your pain produce fruit too let the bittersweet infuse the meat, the seeds, the juice call it your spoonful to help this medicine go down if you keep your head to the sky you wont notice the weight of the crown you wear the worries of the burdens we bear cause we all we got, like it or not our collective, however previously neglected doesn't work with out all our affection infecting every broken section we reflecting like a corrective mirror Where blemishes disappear we use pro activ lovin its the salve we rub in while pullin cornbread from the oven so sweet it taste like cake Granddaddy couldn't read but studied his word every day and naw, daddy don't have much to say but his actions impacted and inhabit three daughters a father can always be proud of we are the power, we are god in this hour, how the most high defines time Big mama say we are the future and the finest prize she'll leave behind mama wears her costume broaches, daddy make her salmon croquettes i wrap myself in her patchwork quilt breath deep gather lasting remnants of her scent Begging for her presence in desperate moments when my measure of a woman falls short of the mark when i am alone in the dark i remember I am Clara's heart keeper of family secrets & recipes passed down like the slant in my eyes when my father smiles I know the danger of women born wild I know the sizzle of hot bullet through warm skin I know the prayers and the psalms that pull breathe back in When life is leaving, I know the speakings of interceding Succeeding when they can't find the answer I know the off putting sarcasm, slick shit talking back water banter undeniable southern manner So ain't no room for foolin, Aint but one God for ruling, and a charge to keep till that great day in the morning Big Mama say that day is coming, I wanna tell her that day is here On this great getting up this morning I wake up with NO fear I live with no shame Wild woman untamed Mother my first name Father my foundation Brick house in the making waiting on many mansions provision in expansion Abundance for my family amassed of Mass's , Wilson’s Carters, Millenders, Parkers, Draines and Wells Our cups, our depths are filled And we are running over

A Love Poem We play, we talk, we eat , we sleep, we breathe We breathe deep We breath, we breathe deep We hold we release With constructors of speech Convicted but free We lips tongue we teeth We tactile we reach We the scriptures that teach the collective while each eachothers lover blood Flood we bleed till we drown in this see We love we lovely We love we hugging We love it tugging and heartstrings plucking Our love note tucking in envelopes hopeful perfect in passing Admirer ripping open time stop we elapsing We are stars crossed time travelling universes Unrehearsed this improvisation and we make it What we want it to be Like on stages like in prayers, like in my dreams Manifested to my destiny Sealed to my desire Motivation for this artist to aspire We water we fire We title bought fighters so pretty So pretty we flyer than butterflies or bees Than the tops of redwood trees Then skyscrapers tearing holes in the clouds When the rain comes down we dance in it Splash ruin our best pants in it We washer and dryer Setiva and lighter Good and plenty like Forrest and Jenny Baby we peas and carrots We inherit the best our parents could show We grow We let our soul glow We solos We two roads laid parallel getting there One step at a time We blues and blue lines Ink and computer keys we you and me doing the damn thing No sampling We empty MPC’s We emcees mp3ed WE die hard Ipod video tripod viewed on youtube Weaving a voodoo We Shango, we Osun We middle passage travelling through oceans We the ingredients to this love potion Bubbling in this cauldron We smoldering we scaulding we .45’s revolving with no scratches and no skips Its like magic does exists We embraced and we kiss We touch and its bliss And we love it like this

I See You I see you I see you I see you He find perfection in my faults He pick the sugar from my salt He see the scars layed on my heart He mindful with the stitches He sees my fears and wishes My wit and intuition my defenses I’m left defenseless He see I don’t always know But I can put on a show And I can sure act a fool When I catch an attitude but He can see right through the façade so insecure To the core that’s beautiful and he knows He tells me You can’t hide from me, I see you You might as well let go of the sheets, I see you It ain’t no future fronting for me, I see you And baby you’re a beautiful view He tells me You can’t hide from me, I see you You might as well let go of the sheets, I see you It ain’t no future fronting for me, I see you And baby you’re so beautiful He see me building a vision he say he got a tool kit He been on a mission say the maker sent me to him He see what I been through And he know just what to do with me, he say He see my light shining he want to be a mirror He say , Bird, you the word I just want to be a hearer and a doer a provider Ride or die Down for life and when my tires go flat He keep a spare and a jack in the back He tells me You can’t hide from me, I see you You might as well let go of the sheets, I see you It ain’t no future fronting for me, I see you And baby you’re a beautiful view He see the me I try to hide away, I see you He see the secret that I take to my grave, I see you Now I don’t tell him but he see anyway Catch me kneeling baby get down to pray He see the demons that I can’t keep at bay I say their coming you should get out the way He see this woman and he stay for warplay I snatch the nine from the rack He pull the sword from his back He tells me You can’t hide from me, I see you You might as well let go of the sheets, I see you It ain’t no future fronting for me, I see you And baby you’re a beautiful view He tells me You can’t hide from me, I see you You might as well let go of the sheets, I see you It ain’t no future fronting for me, I see you And baby you’re so beautiful, baby you’re so beautiful

Supaman I think you’re fly like supaman skin stay blacker than molasses on an African Or midnight in the sky Swagger keeps him high Like he could leap a skyscraper Show you what the mind is made of Steel and gods will Even if he beats his odds he’ll still be Just another hero in disguise I think he’s fly Fly like superman, yeah like supaman Baby you you Lion amongst men Defiant when caged in Eager embracing the young you’ve yet to father Taking our village farther to the place where the water Is as sweet as the words that released us My black man be free but Full of knowledge of his self worth He work even when he hurt Might be suspected as the perp while jump out boys kick up dirt on his new jump mans He’ll holla if you feeling froggy SHIT, JUMP MAN Cause he can see him unde the protection of his Bullet proof vest and government issued steel and gold shield He can smell the fear so real it makes him sweat Hear the raspy breathes between the empty threats and count it Just another driving while black encounter My black man you can count on He can scale mountain is famine and Bring back the grandest slab of bacon Turn mistakes into greatness His statements is structures built on firm foundation Like the rock of Jibraltar He lay his life at the altar He change alternators, starters, carborator, motor oil and rotate tires He will not retire or give into fleeting desires, He ain’t no bird man flippin on no curb man He so much higher so much flyer Like supaman skin stay blacker than molasses on an African Or midnight in the sky Swagger keeps him high Like he could leap a skyscraper Show you what the mind is made of Steel and gods will Even if he beats his odds he’ll still be Just another hero in disguise I think he’s fly Fly like superman, yeah like supaman Baby you you This is no ordinary love no ordinary love I give extraordinary love I love you over every love that comes with a list of conditions I love you in complete and total submission With meals when you get home from work waiting in the kitchen Check the microwave for the plate with the big piece of chicken I love what you hate about yourself Love that I have to put me up on a shelf in order to love you properly I love you so much there’s nothing stopping me from loving you I love you physically mentally and drug abused Broken and confused cause I have lived a few If not all of those lives at sometime in my lifetime So I’m gonna continue loving you Until I run out of lifelines and Drown in an ocean of love potion number 9, 10, and 11 And at my funeral I’m gonna look down on you from heaven and shower you with love So come on step out the tub I’m gonna fresh bought terry cloth towel you with love Love that can’t be calculated in numerical figure Love that keeps brown fingers from squeezing metal triggers Love that is spared shared and can only get bigger Aint nothing like the love I have for my niggas And I think you are so fly baby Like Superman Baby You , You