CHAPTER 1

    Rhythm of the City

    Rhythm of the City
    Makes the dog bark makes the bird sing
    Grandma wash the bathtub ring
    Them greens cooking in the pot sho smell good
    Uncle ain't working but wish that he would

    Find a job that pays more than 25 cent thrills
    'cause the bills
    keep comin' and they don't care
    who they hurt who they scare
    They will jump over Liberty
    beat down on Freedom
    lie about Tomorrow
    and steal your dreams Today

    Yeah Rhythm of the City
    keeps-on-a-beatin' a-ratta-tat-tat & stuff-like-that
    for the rich man's dance or the poor man's song ...
    the melodies of hope and what the good heart brings

    Save the city children masked in illusion
    drugs and violence weaved in confusion

    Change the beat to a Sweeter Chord
    Somebody do Something
    If not you Dear Lord

Just Us

Who dat down dere in da gutter
with the needle in dey veins ...
Just us
Who dat in da prison cells
criminally insane ...
Just us
Who be makin' all dat noise
in dem gangster limosines ...
Just us
Who are the children whose lives
are bustin' at the seams ...
Just us
Who be da homeless, da hongree
and da nominally deprived ...
Just us
Who are the peoples dying from
AIDS in the prime of their lives ...
Just us
Who can shine the American Constitution
and bring about a change?
Just us

What is the answer to the problem
some afraid to ponder?

Justice!

for

JUST US


Life

a bowl of sweat
a sad regret
a heap of debt

a momentary smile

a tested faith
a world of people
who do not care

Life


So Dang Hot!

Nope, I ain't got no fancy car
But my mind can go just as far

Nmm Nmm, I ain't got no fancy clothes
But I can grow a yellow rose

I ain't got no money to shine
But what I got is all mine:

A dream that lives
A promise of hope
A glistening vision
A heart that is warm

A young child's smile makes it all worthwhile
When feeling the lows of life's brutal blows

I keep on pushing 'til the day arrives
When money is no object, only our lives
Filled with music, good health
Love and bliss, a tender kiss ...

So I ain't sorry for what I ain't got
'Cause what I got is So Dang Hot!


My Dictionary

I SIT BESIDE MY DICTIONARY
ITS WEALTH SO STRONG AND SURE

WORDS OF PEACE DYNAMIC CHANGE
AND CRIME'S FORGOTTEN CURE

DIVERSITY A FAVORITE RHYME
TO ADVERSITY'S BEST TOOL

IGNORANCE AND STUPIDITY
NO FAULT OF ANY SCHOOL

I SIT BESIDE MY DICTIONARY
AND READ THE WORDS IN PRINT

GLAD TO KNOW HOW RICH I AM
THOUGH I HAVEN'T GOT A CENT


Hollywood

I

If Hollywood could, it would, do what it should
to propagate more good

It's who you know or who you blow
and whose `privates' you will show
that get you where you go

A casting couch or director's chair
A writer's whim or producer's dare

Egocentric maniacs
for power and control
sex begets the drugs
begets the winner of the role
nepotism, private lies, and racism that is old

II

But Hollywood knows its own
wretched duality narcissistic frivolity
it revels in the cursory arts
and prides itself too great
to glance into equality
or ever hesitate
to balance what is wrong with degenerated youth
who raised on Hollywood Today
can barely learn or ever come to say
`thank you' in the simplest way ...

For need of greed
the evil seed
of Hollywood ...
We Plead, Take Heed


Thought!


A Professor said to me ...
Read and read again
Discover the virtues of scholarship
When choices mirror sin

Like Franklin, Benjamin once wrote
the ways to wealth and wisdom
come easily to the moral man
who is ethical but tiresome
from hard day's work and effort pure
and yet despite adversity
he knows that he shall endure

Let's take a voyage said he
let's try to get away
escape our social maladies
realize the things we say

We'll journey through experience
of authors henceforth past
we'll raise our minds to infinite
farther higher faster than fast
zoom beyond the zenith of imagination's womb
See into complexities of mystic leaders' tombs

Fear not what ails you, said he,
Cast worry and doubt aside
Surrender unto Enlightenment
Do without false pride

Fulfill potential temperament
Let nature run its course
Reflect upon diversity
Firmament and the stars, a horse

Dream about the yesterdays tomorrow shall never see
then walk or talk and smile awhile and think eternity


Shoe Fly

The summer day was hot and sticky and mean
So I goes to open the door screen
Say'd come on in Mr. Fly
I asks no questions why
You buzz 'round without an utter
Den lands on my dairy butter
Bothering me even when I say please
Spreading dem nasty germs and household disease

"But come on in Mr. Fly
I won't ask no questions why
your babies is born in maggot clusters
of filth and garbage, decay and waste ...
or just about anything you can muster."

"So, do, come on in Mr. Fly
I won't ask no questions why
you do what you do with the dogshit outside
wit yo' luminescent eyes opened so damned wide
But you keep away from my children, ya' hear
'cause Sunday's newspaper on top-the-table is near
Oh, I don't want to hurt you Mr. Fly
but if I has to I will
when up against the wall
I might just kill!"

    Pepper Grease

    No one could cook quite like Mama
      "Must be all that pepper," I'd say
    `Or maybe that 'ol grease you use'
    Mama'd keep on cooking and smiling while she
      sweetly sang the blues
      "Baby how long since you seen ya Daddy?"
        she asked rather quietly
    "I don't know," I said
      "I hear he ain't doin' too good
    seems he had another nervous breakdown
    and he ain't acting like he should
    people on the corner tell me he's married again
    some say he raped my sister, and that's just an
    unforgivable sin, another told me he messed up my brother
    made him sleep out in the rain, and that he tried to break his legs,
    it's all just too much for me Mama,...