11 Kings

[Legacy]

Black scrawl. Defiant script
Smudged bulletproof glass
Tagged with the tree of lineage
11 Kings. 2 besieged by bids
FREE THEM
A demand plain
Imagine them etched by a shadow thin youth
Lips snarled, 165 pounds of scared
Masked street swagger and shit talk
Souljah in training jeans slung low on lean hips
Timberlands half laced and life half lived

Bus benches are the thrones of these pretenders
To the crown of hoods
Settled between tar streets, plumed winds and heavens untouchable
Wreaths of smoke circling their heads
Ephemeral halos
Burning bushes, muted orange embers
Between lips thick and below camera flash eyes
Still life
Windswept wilderness of crushed glass and garbage
Tangoing in the gutter
Gym shoes strung from electrical wires
Crows caw from the first hours of the sun
Until its descent slanting shadows on projects

Infant shrills in the distance
Curses sizzling
Grease popping on the stove in a kitchen
An overworked mother
Snaps at her rambling seeds
To shut the fuck up and sit down
This is the only language of love

Sharp tongues understand life is not kind
Chastise and spare not to spare a cop
The need to night stick the rebellion
From compliant youths
Defiance will earn quicker death
A more painful descent into insanity
Will withers on the vines of the vulnerable
These streets consume souls with the ferocity
Of stalking lions
Young prides bare their teeth
Bares their shoulders
Won't dare bare their hearts
For fear of someone hearing the cry for help
In their roaring voices

11 Kings carving empires out of street corners
Mortally wounded mentalities
Dictates their realities
Blistering hopes, rotting cores
Blooming spores of hatred
Hollow mouths feeding on insufficient bread
Dissipating between brown fingers
With exchange of spirit stock for cracks rocks
Filthy lucre and sullied souls
Boys without the grasp of men
Gasping for breathe beyond a bitter sun
Cloaked in gritty clouds
Dust and despair ransoming
Their dreams and innocence
To a concrete destination
FREE THEM
A demand plain
11 Kings, 2 besieged by bids
Glaring in magic marker graffiti
Their silent testament