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Streetlight Symphonies
by
Nikki Giovanni
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Darkest days, brightest nights Cries for help, sho’ you right We been tired all our lives Living, losing under lights Yeah, Let me take you back to summertime, 2015 Where any other time I woulda found a reason to be But hopelessness was like the theme, a reoccurring motif Or was my energy the imagery I needed to see I left the house a couple times a week, nothing was exciting So I tried to get 12 hours sleep a day to pass the time and Started vibin' with my writing more, saw the fam like once week Windows open, shots galore and screams echoing down the street College 'round the corner but in fact around my corner wasn't safe If it wasn't shells or casings it was blades where kids would play And hat was life, we heard sirens aplenty, violence and envy Streets and caskets full of bodies, and our hearts'll be empty It goes (it goes) Darkest days, brightest nights Cries for help, sho’ you right We been tired all our lives Living lucid under the lights Darkest days, brightest nights Cries for help, sho’ you right We been tired all our lives Living lucid under the lights Yeah, and in the fall, my first semester impressive and still it left a Sour taste of the future in mouths of my first oppressor 17, but my mental was heavy I felt them days getting blurry and saw my consciousness ending Didn't sleep to get them grades i didn't need and wouldn't keep Yeah, my mom was proud of me but for myself I sought reprieves From the paler among us, I felt the glares and the hunger Like they missed being gathered around the branches they hung us They turned around and saw an inconvenience being 'round us I turned around and saw the tortures being mentally stuck Between the silence of sacrificing my voice so I could blend in with them And the sirens and screams colliding once I'm home in the end It goes (it goes) Darkest days, brightest nights Cries for help, sho’ you right We been tired all our lives Living lucid under the lights Darkest days, brightest nights Cries for help, sho’ you right We been tired all our lives Living lucid under the lights We wear the mask that grins and lies Hides our teeth and leaves us blind Till our last it's crooked smiles While tortured, bleeding hearts compile We wear the mask that grins and lies Hides our teeth and leaves us blind Till our last it's crooked smiles While broken, bleeding hearts compile We wear the mask that grins and lies Hides our teeth and leaves us blind Till our last it's crooked smiles While tortured, bleeding hearts compile … wondering Is my eye make-up on straight Or a withdrawn discoursing on the stars and the moon Instead of a for real Black person who must now feel And inflict Pain I wish I had a million dollars to my name And if I did I'd prolly spend it On a jacket, couple caskets, and a plane… yeah So I could flee from all the trauma And the problems that I probably can't escape See, I made a promise to our father Not to loathe a heart until I passed away But today could be that day, so I pray For this cycle of violence and wicked riots to find it's Way to end in some silence before them sirens divide us Indecisive over brotherhood, our brother's hood is gone Ain't no hooded justice coming, ain't no trusting in the the law Ain't no fighting for reform, we just fight and serve as pawns I seen 'em running, bright as summer, with the leash up on their dogs In our city where the better bet’s to trade 'em ‘fore they gone We been pushed, shoved and transferred just so they could mow their lawn Still we murder one another just to say it on a song It’s just revenge and hatred spewing through our veins it flows along Might be wrong, but disaster's all we saw, that’s all we're taught And there ain't no loving in the streets, the hood won't love us till we on The white man pass the policies, the black man always take the fall And the boys crackdown till we're deceased, apparently six feet's where we belong And the kids tote straps and hate police, police tote straps and hate us all With the violence all of us have seen eventually no peace left in the heart See it’s racial violence and guns providing Streetlight symphonies, loss, and silence So keep your mouth shut and hope to God it's Not you next at that candle lighting Or standing by at wrong place wrong time Your mask won't hide their racial bias Ain't no crime just, lack of whiteness So pick your poison, good luck surviving Damn Darkest days, brightest nights Cries for help, sho’ you right We been tired all our lives Living, losing under lights [Applause]
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