Almost Livin' Almost Dyin'

for all the dead & hear my streets with ragged beats & the beats are too beat to live so the graves push out with hands that cannot touch the makers of light & the sun flames down through the roofs & the roots that slide to one side & the whistlin' fires of the cops & the cops in the shops do what they gotta do & your body's on the fence & your ID's in the air & the shots get fired & the gas in the face & the tanks on your blood & the innocence all around & the spillin' & the grillin' & the grinnin' & the game of Race no one wanted & the same every day so U fire & eat the smoke thru your long bones & the short mace & the day? This last sweet Swisher day that turns to love & no one knows how it came or what it is or what it says or what it was or what for or from what gate is it open is it locked can U pull it back to your life filled with bitter juice & demon angel eyes even though you pray & pray mama says you gotta sing she says you got wings but from what skies from where could they rise what are the things the no-things called love how can its power be fixed or grasped so the beats keep on blowin' keep on flyin' & the moon tracks your bed where you are alone or maybe dead & the truth carves you carves you & calls you back still alive cry cry the candles by the last four trees still soaked in Michael Brown red and Officer Liu red and Officer Ramos red and Eric Garner whose last words were not words they were just breath askin' for breath they were just burnin’ like me like we are all still burnin' can you hear me can you can you feel me swaggin' tall & driving low & talkin' fine & hollerin' from my corner crime & fryin’ against the wall almost livin' almost dyin' almost livin' almost dyin'