This poem goes out to them dudes on the corner

Cause I know that when minimum wage can’t pay the average rent

In most states… You’re doing what you have to to survive

To the mothers who play both roles and to the guilty fathers who play none

Actually, this is for the children who go in between homes

Sometimes, outside in the cold cause they need homes

And to the families who open up their already crowded houses to let more in….

I dedicate this poem to you because too often you are overlooked…

The system bred you, it fed you, but eventually turned you into a crook

Because I bet if you asked these prostitutes, these drug dealers, these strippers

If they had another chance… after they let down the façade they built up to cope with it all

They’d say yes in a heartbeat…

This is to that child with a weak heart beat… convulsive body

Cause its mother was on that hard white

I stand around kids who can afford 60 thousand a year in a heartbeat

And know they don’t know what these scars like…

These kids had to choose between Harvard, Yale, or Rice

While 10 blocks away they have to choose between Heat, water, or Rice

And I know you think it’s the way the cookie crumbles

But, I’m begging you to ask who does the crumbling

Politicians bumbling about this, that, or that

Ain’t much change since the proclamation so it’s weed, coke, or crack

Niggas servin that, just to serve their kids some cheese and mac

Empty cigarette packs and condom rappers fill the streets

Gang bangers and wanna-be rappers feel the streets

Cause it’s beating in they veins

Along with the many other substances used to forget

that they never really had a chance

I didn’t have a chance so I took one

And now I stand here at the mic for the shook ones

I stand proudly with my pants a little saggy

Street clothes to let you know that you’ll never understand me

I got a foot in each world cause I overstand the hype

To those overlooked I’ll bring your story to the light…