About the Poetry Blog
The poets featured on this page are currently incarcerated, and many of them are in federal prisons far from home. Your feedback is a valuable source of motivation and connection to the outside community. These messages will be passed on directly to the author. Comments may not appear immediately on the site, as our team processes them to mail to the poets.
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Danger
Run little black boy
Run away, run away
But my legs wouldn’t move
I felt like my legs were glued to the pavement
My little 10 year old eyes shouldn’t have seen what I saw
I could almost taste the blood as it was punchin’ out of him
Screams and screams and screams was all I could hear
But da sound of a da gun, caused me to close my eyes
Some ask what did I see?
Well this is what I saw
It was me, the bullets were rippin’ through
But why me?
But as the bullets ripped through me
Like a creature was comin’ out of my soul
It caused me to open my eyes and there it was…
A lifeless Body
Just layin’ with his eyes open
But was he alive? Was he dead?
Why were his eyes open?
I wonder if he saw me?
Did I know this human being who was killed right in front of me?
Was God sendin’ me a message?
I guess this da reason why I can’t cry at night
Because I see the ones that are dead and not the ones that are alive
My mommy once told me
Everything happens for a reason
But for what reason was it for me to see a life taken?
So as I walked slowly to da person
I saw his eyes begin to close and words became to drift out his mouth….
“Run shorty run”
So I took off runnin’
But when I was tired of runnin’ it was dat sound again
The Gun
This time it was even louder
Almost as if it was right beside me
And there I was stuck again
To where you ask?
Right there on the pavement
Where it all started
I watched da killer take the last breath out of a human I barely knew
7 years later, a wonderful lady gave me a challenge to tell her what Danger looks
like
Well…
Danger is black
Danger is loud
Danger is life
Danger is Death
Danger is a human who would take another human from this earth
Danger is right in front of you
Just open your eyes and look.
My Hood
My hood is my hood
My beef is my beef
But to be real
All I have to do is be me
Things have come and things have gone
I use to couldn’t wait to live my life
But now I can’t wait to get home
Happiness for smilin’ and pains for cryin’
But things get mixed up
F***** in the game
No one’s at fault and no ones to blame
But whats the point
Oh yeah, I know his name
When I was doin’ it, it was a game
But I look back
Now I’m a shame
Why
Why take people lives when you can save their lives
Why beat your child when you can love ‘em
Why be something that you’re not and say something smart that can get you shot
Why smoke and make your parents catch a stroke
Why me
Why you
Stop trying to put yourself in people’s shoes that’s not for me and you
The only thing we want to do is shoot, WHY….
Judged
Old ladies see me
and hold their purses tight
little kids see me
and take off running
police see me
and harass me quick
girlfriend calls my home
with a whole bunch of BS
judges see me
and shake their head
but God looks down
as I make my bed
but when I look in the mirror
I see exactly what everyone sees
I Come From (Cold Street)
I come from ah city of gorillas who don’t care,
no matter what you do
even take ah banana’s peel and they’ll take it there…
I’m from ah cold street, where dudes carry cold heat,
and their adrenaline is pumped from the way the X creep…
My city is like no other the gorillas is one thing
But them snakes are another
I’m from ah city where the wizards play and you’ll hear shots if you turn the wrong way
I’m from the murder capitol where everybody tryna eat
and I ain’t talking about no Big Apple either
So don’t think it’s sweet…
The Block I Come From
I come from a block where the wrong words get you popped
I come from a block where young boys eager to hold down the block with the forty-glock
I come from a block where your ma is on that rock
and where homies’ bodies drop like rain
Some people can’t feel my pain
Forced to be in the game
I come from a block where you feel like you won’t make it
But listen to this
Sit back
And let the Lord take it
What Do You Say
What do you say about the Boy who grew up on kiss and hugs
But he grow up on luck and who gives a f***
But I say how can my mom be my enemy when she’s part of the inner me
She’s the one that held you for 9 months, but tortured you for so much more
When the only happiness you see is the door
The way out that’s like the power in arm reach, but can’t have
You can’t touch it, you can’t have it
What do you say to the Boy in hell when he feels the only way out is jail?
What do you tell the Boy who’s played with like a toy
Who fights for his life but his life is never right
What do you tell him when he lives the life of the struggle and lives in the shadow of his brother fighting off my enemies
But can I beat the inner me
What do you tell him
My Life
I come from…
The dirty south where how clean your shoes are is more important than how good your grades are
I’m from…
The Black flag hanging out your back pocket
Swear your life to your gang
MIA Florida, I come from the “how much drug you can sell?”
Stunt Hard South Side
I come from…
Where the more hearts you break the cooler you are
I come from hell
Untitled (No Light)
The dark ain’t where it’s at cuz I can’t even see
All this bulls*** over my eyes ain’t working for me,
It’s been dark all day and it ain’t even night
What you ain’t got no flashlight
You ain’t got no light…
I gotta get outa hell
Lights out on my dreams like I forgot to pay the bill.
I’m on an empty train
Just me and my hope.
I can’t win for losing trying to find ways to cope.
I’m on the last train, all the lighted ones left, and if I don’t jump off this train…
I’ma crash into death
I Come From
I come from 53rd street
Where people’s hearts cold but tote heat
Where drug paraphernalia lay beside big wheels
Where feelings are depression, but everyone feels the way you feel.
Where young’uns getting that bay, but ain’t got a pot to piss in.
It’s far from the slums, but where you don’t want to live in.
I come from drug dealers
single parents
help from a grandmother
and ski-masks.
And where they banging for no reason, or just to make the weed last.
Where they say, “Who Dat” and “OK Yea”, when you see your man
Where he daps you up and change clips with the same hand
Where we get ready when somebody coming up the one, one…
it ain’t much but its where I come from.
I Come From (the Hood)
I come from the Hood
Where all dumb s*** go on at
I come from the Hood
Where people do not make it out some time
but where you’re from is not a good place
Where you should come from is your mother
and not from a hood
I can say I come from a Hood
But if you know what I know
You come from your mother
So f*** the Hood s*** because….
I come out of my mother
So that is the Hood I’m from
Same Day Service
Livin’ that fast life.
Always worrying about how to get the fast money
Fast jewels, clothes and cars
Like life is a playground and I’m just hangin’ on the monkey bars
Blinded by the famous people and how they livin’ their life
The streets will put together people with negativity
Like how they put lemon with lime to make sprite
The only difference is they give you the ingredients
on how to make sprite
but they don’t give you the ingredients
on how to really live the good life
We become thirsty for negativity like an alcoholic is thirsty for another bottle of the same ole s***
We focus on what we have now instead of what we need later and end up shredding somebody’s dreams like a cheese grater
Then when that point of time comes when you’re inside a hole or your back’s against the wall
When your knees get weak and you’re already at the bottom so there’s nowhere you can fall
You’re goin’ to think of the junkies you used to slang to, the monkeys you used to bang with
You goin’ to think about the days when your mother used to scream at you sayin the same ole s***
You goin’ to realize the same day service ain’t worth ending up miserable, so you might as well wait
At the end of the day, you are the only one who can determine your fate