"Street Music"
Poem by G.Melesaine
Art by Fernando Amaro Jr.

I stay in the streets with my ears closed today
and take a minute to listen while the street music plays
Taking view of the city buses, ebonics serenading from the youngest tongue
Dirty currency baptized through the struggle by revolutionary thugs.
Then Mr.Farrakahn asks me if I want to buy a beanpie
So I support the revolution,
I mean their revolution,
maybe our revolution?
Take a spot on the stoop unwrap my beanpie and
listen to the beautiful shootin'
of bullets and dice, heroin unmasking the ugly of lives
and the funeral singing is the most purest of music
but within the struggle, there are smiles
Smiles that hold truth. Until they change form
can't even DREAM a reality,
Now death is the only dream we can pursue.
But we move.
Move on to the new.
A new day is what we hope for visualizing the change.
Instead of the youngest of seeds knowing the true meaning of angst
We learn and now
It's a beautiful day!
(in the neighborhood Mr.Rogers would say)
But this is Hip Hop so we sing it loudly and praise,
the DREAM (RIP) that only writers would know
that beyond the "ugly ghettoes" there are beautiful souls
off zbeat. Stop the beat box cuz'-I-C
5-0 running down the street rushing to cuff me
My people fight, shout and scream for me
So I stay firm on hard seats
Wave goodbye through my eyes
All my people know and can read me
Rest my head on my steel bed jailed fom misery
But I can visualize the streets at 5 yrs. time doin'
through this quiet silence and scintilla of light trapped in this cell,
I play on repeat, the "Street Music"

Also read another poem:
Freestyle, I Lead
Poem by Bill Tang
Art by Thuy Ngo
July 28, 2005