Look

LOOK
I got all these other poets
SHOOK
lift my hood they better jet
or get wet with my new book
villainous villanelles
I write jail mail for the crooks
…true story
your new stories
do bore me
pour out for the homies
ambrosia flavored savory new 40s
Yep!
my grizzle I’m on it
y’all don’t really want it
‘cause I concuss ya wit just ya mama jokes
written as new sonnets
pen damager iambic pentameter
spin freakish flows as prose
I been slamming nerds
I’m a word wizard
I merk this sure
there’s been a rumor around the slam like
“He works berserk”
“Yo, I heard that
Nate been writing
80 poems a day,
since age one eight
he made 8 great
anthologies and locked ‘em all away”
…Damn straight
I’m Sirius like satellite radio frequencies
I’m speaking scenes
Superhead of any open mic
you see, I freak MCs
I’m a geek you see,
Allen Ginsberg when I spin words
a beat poet
…no really, I beat poets
See, so come against me
it’s essential that you’ll lose
because I’ll leave your dreams
my ego is Langston HUGE
I bang bruise the pad with pens
and leave ‘em black and blue
stay strapped with stanzas shots
and cat I’ll pull the gat on you
I had to do it
you knew what I was concealing
cause I’m a big bad gangsta cool kid who writes about his feelings
a mama’s boy
a bastard child
a geek who has a rapper’s style
a sensitive thug
a kid who’s all grown up now doesn’t have to smile
look
these other poets got me shook
their stories move me
and I don’t deserve my name up in that book
I’ve been here long enough to know
where slam is strong enough to go
just understand there’s more than that
and focus long enough to blow
cause I remember being 13
feeling not so satisfied
in the next 5 years I got jumped seen friends
and both my grandmas die
but a mic, a stage, a pen, a page
helped end my rage and mend my days
so I’ll admit I been afraid of leaving this
‘cause when I stayed
I found my voice but now my time is up
I gotta get away
so excuse the couplet cockiness
I ever showed when rockin’ this
just trying to show my everything
for everything I got from this
Kevin Coval told me I could write
my slam coach told me not to hype
I’ve loved and lost on finals stages
the fates told me it’s not the night
but still I thank this forum for help making me so strong
for letting me talk about
sex, drugs, basketball, and moms
fond farewell to this chapter and to all the joy and laughter
this for every kid, whose voice has been
louder than a bomb.