roaches plea the fifth
3-something-death-breath-a.m
a dream takes a wrong turn
empty urns are short gods ashtrays
souls rolled in layers of the ozone
slowly burning over oure heads hemispheres
a Newport tip dipped in coke
that’s some ol’ Miami shit
as the graveyard shifts clocks in
in warehouses in abandoned houses
…Click…
lock the box on a man’s lifespan
graveyards have yard sales
during Hell’s happy hour
shift changing moods swings
pendulum perceptions
something binding about city lights
something blinding about Ms. Jezebels embezzled bezel
ever heard death row walls argue with the bible about pterodactyls being fighter jets
about hell really being a Florida prison cell in the summer
overheard on a well learned hustling ear
how dead folks speaking on tapped phones saw baby paws flashed burned
on county jail glass
skin graph photograph scorched tall grass wars
Muhammed Ali asphalt talk, them Vietcongs ain’t never did nothing to me…
atomic chalk drawn in vogue forever
if roaches could talk they’d tell us how to shake cancer and stigma
shades of camouflage brown warriors falling dead autumn leaves
every bare branch a fig in the eagles talon still
h
a
n
g
i
n
g
heads
like Do Not Disturb signs on revolving doors
not much different than a hot revolver
one just involves a close casket
hard to figure out which if you miss the viewing
a 3rd person dialogue between 2nd self
the 1st self
no one else knows but this cell
the WILD erness
will bring the Tarzan out of any man
cradling this condition since the cradle since Cane
got sent up the road for slumping his step-brother Abel
Maybach martyrs
a hood stars unpaid leave of absence P.rison
T.
S.
D.
Tuskegee relatives
We are all experiments
gods + governments
saw the all seeing eye tumble from the pyramids pinnacle
a
dollar
short addict
persuading his way in to a fix
it’s not the drug dealer that lacks compassion it’s the dope
as big boy weight states parlay at black tie buffets
snow ball snorting effect
affecting the masses
now every ones 3rd eye is a Cyclops
on the block the corner welcomes home
a soldiers timbs
war isn’t any different than a drive by shooting
slurs the curb as it slurps the backwash
of a poured out forty…a lil’s something for the homies
still screaming all gas no brakes burping gun smoke
while the trails are inhaled by a school bus full of potential nostrils
it was really a snow globe that rolled down that green pyramid
now the sky is ashes the ground an acid trip
a risk
a stop and frisk a convicted wrist tucks its stomach in when it hears
handcuffs armpit-tucked purses
sidewalk strangers and danger has a mean mouthpiece
as a bus passangers suspicious eyes commando crawl over newspaper headlines
scrutinizing
as if this face graces the obituaries column or front pages most wanted
it’s a life and death gig
depending on who’s sitting in the cipher when God spins the bottle
sometimes… it’s good to pass before the puff
the edge of being institutionalized is a straight edge razor
saw a man lose his balance on the justice scale
saw products of the system buck 50 his mind in half
now he doesn’t remember
what side of the
REVOLUTION he’s on
It was Fidel that got Che’ knocked off “true friends stab you in the front…”
was Oscar Wilde’s gangsta way of saying,
real friends will tell on you or backdoor your sweetheart
but if you can change your shadows back up under the bed the bed before the sun comes up
you can turn your incubus around the urns flip once the gods are done burning
the house party down the house party down
engage a gaze for more than three seconds
there’s an interest or slight attraction
breaking eye contact only happens in mirrors
its 3-sinister-something-a.m.
to dark to have stare downs with my reflections besides
a prison
never really falls asleep
but in the young hours of the morning it shut its eyes
kicks its boots up
and dozes
right before it eats the city for breakfast
one child at a time while the roaches bear witness
pleading the fifth
never to testify