Lessons of The Cipher
Poetry taught me about me
And I just want to be free
But what does that mean?
Do what I want
Say what I want
Wear what I want
To you, maybe
But all that is empty if it ain't what I need
And what I need is peace
But how can I have peace when he got a peice
I already know the image your brain cooked up
But I'm talking about the police
And how can I have peace if we all can't eat
The youth sleeping in the streets, doing strange things to make their ends meet
But they won't tell you the whole story
The old narrative's getting boring
And while y'all passing laws and on vacation, The war's still raging
against starvation, miseducation, and subjugation
But this is our nation, under god
They made us repeat it
Had us chanting "With liberty and justice for all"
But that don't mean nothing if you're small
Small city, small borough, small neighborhood
Right in the cracks
The pavement
The drugs
The government did all that
That's what poetry taught me
We're never truly free
In fact, It's when you believe yourself to be free that you've been trapped