18

 

Hooray!

Suuu baby now

Sukkie

Sukkie

Ouuu now

Can the chu’ch say A-men!?!

Oh lawd

Choir sang it

C’mon

Let them freedom bells rang

C’mon

Piano man play the damn thang

Let them horns blow man blow

Be

Cause

I just wanna let you all know that

I

Never

Thought I’d see the day of my eighteenth birthday

Heehaw

My eighteenth birthday

Yippee kay yay

Yippee kay yay

Can’t believe I finally made it man

I was born!

Not to make it but

Somehow

I make it happen

Someway

I make it work

Mmmm chile I work it out and make it look good

So

FUCKING good

My

God

With my eyes blindfolded and my hands tied behind my back

I was born!

On the wrong side of the tracks man

Around the alleyway back in the blackest nigga section of New Yawk City

Right by the expressway

Yes

The Bronx Bomber started from

Under

The poverty line

Started from the bottom below zero at only 25 weeks old and grew up

Up the block from the neighborhood dope spot

Next doe to the snowman—snow bunnies come and take a walk on the wild side

Yes

Around the corner from the coroner and corner store bodega

Right in front of the storefront church

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

In the belly of the beast

Hmm

The beast tried to eat me

Tried to do me

But I was too much to digest so instead

I ate the beast and now the beast is my belly

WHAT!?!

Motherfucker

You know what it is

You know what it do

You know how it be

Special K

You know who I am

The 730

007 Dirty Harry from 782

The troublesome troubadour of the truest matador metaphors...

Mmmhm

Watch me grab the bull by the horns

Yeah eighteen and shaking the bullshit off and kicking down doors

Bitch

Forever

Sticking it to the man and all these

Bitch ass

Cotton picking pickanany Grammy award winning feminine men and minstrel show

Bo

Jangles

You know I won’t bow down or bend over for nobody

No way

Will I ever say never

Kay will never die or ever play the porch monkey for the honkies and the crackers

Kay don’t take no for an answer

18

Taking no prisoners

That’s right

Everybody gon get it boy and if I said it I meant it

One mo time

I said Imma tell it like it is and make it plain because

I am not afraid to say what ya’ll been thinking all this time

No

I won’t stay in my place to save face

Be

Cause

I’m eighteen now and done faced plenty of adversity

Many a time

Come face to face with the devil but my knees

Would not

Could not

Buckle and I did not kiss up or suck up

I put up and shut up

I

I

I

Put it down

Shut it down

Cause you can knock me down but can’t keep me down

 No

Kay won’t stay down

 Brother I’m

Too good

But brother

I coulda been no good

Coulda been a hood

Who

Coulda been got shot or locked up

Coulda copped out and dropped out

But I

Kept on keeping on

Moving

Grooving

Doing it you know

Doing it to death

Dum

Diddly

Di

Dum Dum

Without a gun

Diddly  

Di

Dum

Dum

And it’s been one hell of a time just trying to survive

Man

I’ve been

Up

Been

Down

Been

Over

Been

Out

Been a puppet

Been a pauper

Been a pawn

But you know I’m a poet who’s soon to be king

A king who’s soon to marry a queen and raise a family

Soon to be in the movies

And

  Move my mama out to a new house

Yeah buddy

Soon to be paid

Soon to have it made

Soon to make it

Commune with the birds and use my words to

Make a difference in the world

Just you wait

And see

Eighteen

© 2013 Karl Lawrence