EWUARE OSAYANDE
Lowcoup Too
for Amiri Baraka who coined the term
we speak
in sub-verse-ive speech
lowcoup
we done overthrew yr language long time ago
we diction dictators who dominate the national dialogue
not what you hear on the news
but what is heard in the streets of America
where the masses are active
and alive
as our languageslave legacy lingers
deep structure is a motherfucker
fucking up your grammatical structure
sinful syntax
we transgress rules that stress
what is correct or incorrect
every time we open our mouths
cant no amount of schooling stop thiswe slow down the lingo
with our Southern drawl
talking bout ya'll instead of you
bout finnin to instead of going to
say what needs to be said
this be our linguistic legacy
we be lying&signifying
why you think much of our discussion
consists of dissing&cussing?
black boasting
is burnt toasting
we dont play wit wat we say
venomous vernacular
we spit fire
got molatov cocktails burning under our tongues
we'll blow a hole in yo head
with our oral arsenals
we use words as weapons
battling on lyrical terrain
where most fear to tread
cuz language is power
know that once the word is written on the page
it dies
all the books you've read
the words are dead
only that which is spoken remains alive
this is how culture thrives
like the people who speak it
we need speech to reach the masses
not those academic asses
but the masses
who dont got no BAs, MBAs or PhDs
these are the people we communicate with
those who speak their first tongue
on the workplace
where CEOs try to control how folk flow
on the DLparanoid professionals
wanna call for one language laws
to be enforced
but you cant control
what rolls off the tongues
of those who work for youcuz theirs is a lingo of liberation
always changing inflections and definitions
anarchy articulations
syllables laced with cyanide
murdering you with murmurings
under our breath
rebellious rhetoric
communicating ideas that undermine
your authoritythis is lowcoup
we done overthrew yr language long time ago
the american dialect is ours
and we aint gonna be satisfied
til the rest of country is ours too
Doin' Time
the downward spiral
caught in the vortex of a life with a question mark
the time
that keeps on tickin
keeps tickin
that refuses to be paused
in spite of the pain
there is no respite for the weary
no time-out
to plan, to strategize
our way outta this mess
so the babies keep being born
begotten and forgotten
hearts growed colder
frost-bitten by bitterness
each day looking Grief in its grill
its reflection seen on our faces
our lives been turned into feces
the waste of this place
as the slums expand
our demands -have fallen upon ears deafened
by the sound of gold cuff-linked hands exchanging
million dollar deals for the real estate
that is the land we live on
our get-out-the-ghetto desires have been blighted
our existence is a sham
a crying shame
each day
someone new to blame
holed up in inner-city cement huts
stressing out a livin’
that aint easy
that aint no cristal stair
we climb on top of each other
just to get out of the basement of our bitterness
no accommodations we gots
barely a cot and pot to piss in
our lives are survival of the downpressed
instinct kicks in
when all rational ends
have been deaded
dilapidated determinations
accommodated dreams
our labor affords us no luxuries
lack the means to make our lives meaningful
just mean
just mean
just means that we are
constantly conjuring up some meager semblance of an existence
from the junk yard scraps piled high in the industrial waste plants
of this juggernaut of bars and stars
where we are locked down in our own demise
hand-cuffed to our misery
and there aint no escape
no there aint no escape
no getting free from this place
the whole planet is patrolled
and we are being caged right in our homes
where peace is a prayer that never gets answered
while the wealthiest go to sleep each night
never worrying over
what new misery will meet them tomorrow
but each minute we contemplate
consciously and unconsciously
the ever-present possibility of heartache
in existential anguish
our pain is perpetual
and time keeps on tickin
keeps on tickin
and tickin
and
black life been a crime since Jamestown 1619
and we still
doin’ time
still doin’ time
still
doin’ time