This is my first feature poem on MY LIFE IN RHYME. The lovely Amena Brown was actually the first poet I ever collaborated with. If it wasnt for her, I may not be doing this at all! She is my inspiration! Check her out at: Amena Brown Website
Amena: We wear the mask
Sean: That grins and lies
Amena: It hides our cheeks
Sean: And shades our eyes.
Eyes filled with pain and strife,
Lives filled with shame and doubt.
Young lady it will be all right.
We see you out at night.
Making guys believe that whatever they want they can have.
They ask and you give it out.
We know you been giving out.
The world says that’s what you should be about.
Making your ends by showing your skin and dropping your thing.
‘Cause,
Both: Real girls are supposed to get down on the floor
Sean: And real girls are supposed to be freaks and hoes,
Both: On the inside.
But on the inside, you know that that guy is not that fine
And your body attention and mind are worth more than a pickup line a wink or a smile
‘Cause what he wants you to think is that you’re too legit
So he can woo them hips
And drop you off so he can do it again.
What makes you different than the other thin light skin
Or the other round dark brown he can get on the strip?
What you think your cheekbones more distinct?
Sean: Your milkshake may bring all the boys to the yard…
Amena: My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard…
But all you got at your yard sale is old, used, broken, abused
Fragments of yourself that are going for less than what they’re worth.
And for what its worth,
Real men don’t go to the yard,
Both: They go to Jesus.
Amena: the story of the hip hop pin-up girl
doesn’t begin with the men she’s slept with
dressed in nothing but pearls
manolos and stretch jeans may make us women,
but rings don’t make us honest
cristal scented lipstick and rhinestone eyestones
make for a beautiful figure
with eyelashes as long as the line outside the club
we still can’t see
our bodies have become a means of income
we hope the trade off equals cars, cloths, attention and then some
but the trade off never equals respect
now we hide behind fly name brands most of us can’t afford
the sad thing is
Both: Our souls can’t wear fendi
Sean: Shaded lips and short tight dresses clutch hips,
But never tight enough to keep legs closed.
Ladies believing the lie that it’s all about Me, Myself, and I
When the truth is, you will always disappoint yourself.
Jesus Christ is all you have in the end.
Precious eyes focus on the attention of men,
When their true worth lies in the attention of Him.
Cause every female singer in the world has a song called Baby,
And we wonder why we got babies.
Amena: Little girls used to want to marry doctors or maybe be one
now they want to marry rappers and maybe sleep with one
womanhood has been reduced to hips, thighs, and stilleto boots
we’ve lost respect for the women our mother’s were
searching for freedom in freely giving ourselves away
following the directions of djs and emcees to make it clap
Both: From the window to the wall
Amena: Yeah, we get low…until our self image can’t get any lower
what we gon’ do?
feel each on other and sip on some hen…
Sean: one thing leading to another…
Amena: but what becomes of us?
Amena: We wear the mask
Sean: That grins and lies
Both: It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.
Sean: Eyes filled with pain and strife,
Lives filled with shame and doubt.
Young man it will be all right.
But don’t let me call you out.
I know what your all about.
Making the body parts of women the objects of affection.
She jiggles and you’re falling out.
We heard you calling out.
Home girl got a backside and if I act right
Then maybe she can fulfill what’s missing in my life
That I’ve been desperately trying to find.
Now hold that for a minute.
Let me get back to the fact that you’re spending on rims, plat, and women.
So let me ask you something.
Is it working out for you?
Are you figuring out that all those clothes in your house aren’t helping you get to sleep at night?
Na, that’s cause your peace ain’t right.
And we need to start treating our females right.
Both: It’s so necessary!
Sean: And we need to get some of that Jesus light.
Cause whether or not she’s so tight,
Real men of Jesus like women who drop it down to the ground and pray down there.
Cause round here!
Pure women get all the attention.
Amena: We move too soon in pre-fabricated rooms to suit our video fantasies of five-second love to all the slow jamz twista names
the sheets don’t tell and we won’t tell
of how manhood has been given away to trojans, hoes and, picture shows
Sean: ‘Cause round here…we don’t love them…
Amena: Hoes,
This indistinct group of women everybody seems to talk about but no one seems to know
the most wanted and the most thrown away
the most rapped about, one of the most disrespectful words to say
excused and swept under the rug
a pawn in the hip hop game of chess
we should give hoes a name so we can account for how many we’ve made
Sean: Hard exteriors cover up broken insides and hides what is really wrong.
We are in a time when it is desirable to be gangsters, pimps, and thugs.
And we wonder why all our daddies are gone.
Lust for money, power, and momentary satisfaction drives actions.
Too bad none of them make us men.
And we expect elderly boys to make good husbands,
Then we wonder why our marriages end.
So what’s really going on?
Alcohol, money, and thongs
Is all we seem to be focusing on.
Amena: Manhood has been reduced to a single organ
Put up for sale for white gold chains, yellow canary rings and fully loaded whips
Pimpin’ ain’t easy but it’s become the occupation of choice
Too many casualties
Potential and seed wasted on hotel dreams
We’ve lost men to something bigger than the war on terrorism
We’ve lost men to AIDS, jail, and aimless living
They were sold for the cheapest price and they didn’t even know they were for sale
Traded their souls in exchange for pimping and living with no commitment to anything
Amena: We wear the mask
Sean: That grins and lies
Both: It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.
Eyes filled with pain and strife,
Lives filled with shame and doubt.
Everybody it will be all right.
We got you figured out.
We know what its all about.
The devil wants to ruin your life.
He spreads lies and you live them out.
You know your time is running out.
You can’t afford to not listen now.
See, self-revelation and spirituality have become the new thing.
The word god has become popular to throw around
But none of them knows who the real God is.
Too many people claiming Christ’s passion
When they don’t have the passion to handle it.
Settling for less than godly.
Just trying to get along because nobody really wants to be bothered.
Sin is now called experimentation to dull the sting of how wrong it is.
And people want to know what us Christian’s problem is.
Were throwing nothing but truth and answers right in your face
And you’re still looking around at your problems
trying to figure out what the solution to solve them is.
Amena: Smoke may fill our lungs but it leaves our souls empty
We could drown in Cristal but we’ll eventually come to the end of that good feeling
No amount of making love can make up for the love we’re missing
looking for truth we want no absolutes
searching for a keep it real savior on an almost cross
we’ve discovered that keeping it real can’t save us
Amena: We wear the mask
Sean: That grins and lies
Both: It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.
Eyes filled with pain and strife.
Lives filled with shame and doubt.
Everybody its gonna be alright.
Right?
My Life in Rhyme 