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Yo Little Brother

by Brother Dash

Yo, Yo, little brother

What you out here tryin’ to discover?

Yo, Yo, little brother…

You little bro. Hold up Slow your roll

I’m no prophet or scholar but I’ve heard and I’ve told

Now grab onto this moment it’s a rare precious jewel

Created by pain, love, truth, wisemen and fools

I’ve gotten postcards from hell, telegrams from Jibril

Lived a comedy of errors, dreamed tragedy surreal

And I see where you’re headed and I’ve been down that road

Where the essence of self is bought, traded and sold

It may look shiny and smooth but around that there bend

Is a broken heart, a poisoned soul, and a buck-toothed Jinn

And that road ain’t no joke it twists Serpentine

And as you walk through the weeds it’s your heart that’s entwined

Yo, Yo little brother

What you out here tryin’ to discover?

Yo, Yo little brother…

Little brother I love you, you’re like the blood in my veins

But your cuttin’ and slicin’s causin’ Me and you pain

I got interest in your soul I want these words to be gold

And when I’m gone please say you heard every word that I told

Live in this world like a stranger, Sleep on the couch

Walk towards the light, So that your limbs will vouch

That at 2 in the mornin’ you wasn’t sleepin’ or creepin’

You was standin’ in qiyam prayin’ tahajud with your fam

Or maybe even listenin’ to poetry by Brother Dasham!

Yo, Yo little brother

What you out here tryin’ to discover?

Yo, Yo little brother…

Look I ain’t preachin’ or teachin’ I’m reachin’ I’m sharin’

My chest to your chest so you can FEEL that I’m carin’

If believers are mirrors of each other’s state

Then take my biography build and create

I want for your soul what I want for myself

A place of sakeenah, some spiritual health

And it ain’t in a bottle, a spliff or a song

And it aint in this world where right becomes wrong

And it ain’t even simple like “read this hadith”

“It slices and dices, gives you shiny white teeth!”

And just like some poems your path may not rhyme

And the length is uncertain but it lasts a lifetime

And when you remember I hope there’s one thing you kept

That commitment is small it starts with one little step

Yo, Yo little brother

What you out here tryin’ to discover?

Yo, Yo little brother

Let’s go home and pray with one another!

Just A Test

by Brother Dash

The razzle dazzle of big city night life, Miller High Life, got you blind to the realities
of the true to life street life. Champagne wishes and Caviar dreams are the beams
connected to the foundations of various nations, Haitians be the carriers of Green Monkey viruses?, clouds in Mankind’s Irises, but that’s to be expected in the land of resurrected Osirises, Boulevard gods  Peachfuzz squads, make you be on your guard even the righteous be at odds. Advocates for Satanic Whispers, sisters that love to bicker, will get you there quicker while the bugger flickers standin’ in the alleyways hidden from the moonlight street lamps, their mental clamps on contenders and champs, and those that get Amped, scan the UPC forehead stamps, persistent so they walk the dry streets…DAMP!!

Throw your Booyaka’s in the sky, watch the skate boards fly, Bastard Daddies say
Bye-Bye and the world keeps on spinnin’ as all this sinnin’ got him grinnin’ as he brags about everybody that he done been in, Blend In the sounds of thoracic thrusts, unripe fruits that bust, with screaming tears, dreaming their, gleaming fears appear like shattered sunshine raining from dark skies fall and slice like twice on blood soaked faces but the pain of children’s rain barely stains Insane Brains in chains while necks crane to see pubic manes and little remains for those not in the fast lane, they’re on the other side of the window pane, lickin’ dead bugs and dirt granules from the ledge, Are they the ones who are living on the edge? There must be a wedge or a veil on the hearts, On the Hearts torn aparts, When they speak they just fart call it aroma, call it a stench, This woman Free!!!, I see a wench, Girly mags, Hags with bags, no more playin’ Freeze Tag, Rudy orders the gag, why do weather men brag? Why does he leave when they sag?
Why is Philistine such a nag? Do you really donate your clothing or do you simply throw away your rags?

When the Sun rises from the West, When the mother suckles her daughter’s breast,
when children become pests, when the Earth coughs up phlegm from her chest, When nuclear families have empty nests, When housewives are seen as something less, When 12 year olds get buddha blessed, When Stars and Stripes become personal crests, When so-called scientist puff up him chest, When the tongue whips your brother’s back without a rest, When neighbors go hungry and enemies become guests, When leaders of believers sell souls for Kaffir quests, When this poem won’t end even at your behest, When Color and Birth determines who’s best, When lies become meals that we chew and injest, Then with crystal clarity you’ll see the reality that this whole world was just…a test.

The Most Beautifullest

by Brother Dash

If my tongue spits knowledge it was born in the belly of a womb
Of a soul that was kissed by an angel of God
She held humanity deep in the bosom of love and whispered softly…
I’m yours
No creature can possess the capacity
Veracity for mercy mercy
Subhanallah
It’s the wisdom of He
Encapsulated by she
Epitomized by We
Now me
Must testify
In words that became subliminal
It’s criminal we no longer see
The us in her
We trust in her
When there’s just us and her
“but you’s a big man now”

She speaks to you…in words that have no speech
She kissed the tiny hands that reached
For sustenance…not just in milky nutrition
She listens…dreams feel real
When wrapped in arms that don’t demand reciprocity
Loves with such velocity
Possibly
Born in an ocean of names
99 all speak to the same
Never asked for wealth no care for fame
You ain’t above the one from whom you came
Shame on ya’! Ol’ Dirty whispuhs
Got you disrespectin’ yo sistuhs
Sister, Sister please don’t you whisper
Yell your pain, And Scream your name
And Don’t be shy, And Don’t be tame
Don’t request, You just Demand
Grab that book say “I COMMAND THEE!”
In the name of He that made the she and he become the we
The me that speaks to thee wants you to see
That she was there right from the start
She was the quilt that warmed your heart
She was the book
Her voice the words
And as you slept your dreams she heard
You used to crawl
And now you walk
Your lips confused
And now they talk
Who helped you up?
Who fed your hope?
Who kissed your eyes?
Who helped you cope?
Oh Sister, Sister sing this song
Scream this song
Bring this song
Your majesticness exists on the epidermis of bliss and it sounds like this…

The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World is a Mama, Daughter, Wifey, Sister!
The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World is a Mama, Daughter, Wifey, Sister!
The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World is a Mama, Daughter, Wifey, Sister!
The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World is a Mama, Daughter, Wifey, Sister!

Muslimah
by Brother Dash from the album Poetically Speaking

The cloak enveloped the breeze on a day made sunny by her complexion

A radiant kind of energy or perhaps synergy of mood and disposition

She possessed me
Enveloped me
Cradled me like an orphan babe
And then she caught my glance

Now I don’t know why I was afraid to say that it was her essence that gave her such a presence
That sparked such a desire
Not of flesh But of spirit

That longing for love
She reminded me of He
That blew life into She
That gave birth to the We
That soothes our troubled cries and I tried to avoid the eyes

But those eyes pierced the walls of my soul
She grabbed and immobilized me
Gently choked my jugular and peered deeply

“Oh my is that the universe I see in the iris of her soul?”

You see it was her essence that gave her such a presence

That reminded me of love
It was the flow of her gait
It was the way that she walked
It was the way that she talked
Even though her lips never parted

She was purifying water

And I so wanted to pray
Prostrate to her God
That created
That stated
Paradise was at her feet

I was captive to her beauty
And I don’t mean she was pretty
Convinced of my own conviction
She challenged my very existence
And my ego ran for cover

Was it the Sun that warmed the wind that kissed my cheeks?
Or was it the breadth of her aura
A majestic, feminine kind of Je ne sais quoi

My soul quaked
My heart ached
Language is an inadequate conveyor
She never said a word
Her existence spoke volumes
And in this moment demanded a reply
I was bursting to ask the question
Struggling, bumbling, fumbling for the appropriate time
Hyperventalaic starts and stops to the question
Fear and anticipation gripping my emotion and my right index finger
And in the midst of this comical spasm
This flotsam, jetsam to and fro
She must have heard the words beg from my soul

And with the softness of a whisper and an almost sweet serenade

She said to me simply…Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

“I’m just a Muslimah”

©2003 Brother Dash

Muslimah by Brother Dash is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.brotherdash.com.

Masjid Marauders
by Brother Dash

Barreling like boulders through young gardens they trample
With bad breadth and I don’t mean the odor
They are the masjid marauders
In blue jeans and kufees
Baseball caps and man dresses
Green passports and a bad attitude that can only be described as arrogant
They pluck thorns with bulldozers
Fight fires with…More fire
Suck nectar and spit blood
They are the masjid marauders

They leave dirty footprints on the carpet
The color of jaundice with a foreign funk
It must be the wet paint off America’s streets of gold
And too many episodes of Al-Baywatch
Do they remind you of Columbus and his discovery of the red heathens?
Fortune seekers turned fortune tellers
They are the masjid marauders

While they sipped tea and smoked hookah
Southern trees were bearing strange fruit
In 2 K they rode the White elephant
Didn’t Jesse tell them to stay out of the Bushes?
And when black rain poured over Baghdad
And a baby sister I never met cried the collateral blues
Only then did they search their garbage for our poetry of warning
The house of prayer? A social club
For men who share a foreign tongue
Unruly kids spit disrespect and I do mean literal
This place was built on blood and sweat
And hopes and tears
And dreams deferred
The first house was build on the dirt of slaves
Not on the fringes of outer whitelandia
We beat our words on their inner ear duffs
But they turned away ‘cause “music is haram”
Islam like a bomb, napalm for native dwellers
‘Sisters go pray in a cellar’
They are the masjid marauders

Like the Feds they give you a new identity, a foreign look
And definitely a new name
But those fruits and veggies are out of season
And your body is craving local produce
Organically Grown
Are they rotten? Naturally poisoned?
Prob’ly not
But they’ll still give you indigestion
Either from the candidate or from surrogates with issues
They are the masjid marauders

We’re not monkeys with tin cups that sing and dance for alien agendas
We deconstruct
Then we self-construct
With a contextualized prophetic state of mind
See they barrel like boulders
Through young gardens they trample
With bad breadth
And I don’t mean the odor

They are the masjid marauders

I  Will Not Fall

by Brother Dash

The street sweats lust
And I have no raincoat
The darkness starts to choke me
Air so wet that I might drown
The only light in the dark
Are the neon signs
Dunya! Dunya!
OPEN ALL NIGHT
Step inside temptation
There’s a seat at the bar
Watch and lick your lips
As the sizzurp gets poured
The man on the tele said my brother threw a rock
But there’s a battle in that glass
Between the hand and the glass
And the hand in the glass
They say it tastes so sweet
And life is so bitter
My tongue starts to drool
I reach for that drink
But wait…
If I Fall
Will I Get Up?
If I Fall
Will I Get Up?

Yeah as I walk through the valley
The shadow of death
Is the wind and the mountains
I think they fear me
I hope that believer didn’t see me
But they tell me an angel did
Did he tell the mountain maker that I smell like sin?
Bloodshot eyes
These bloodshot eyes
I pretend that I’m wearing rose colored glasses
But the lens is too thick
My vision is blurry
Street preacher said for me to “Stay focused man”
But I wanna leave, I’m outta sync, and I’m a boy in a body
The world is so cold but can’t shut my windows
I shudder to shutter the shutters and I shut her
Outta my house I shut her outta my room
My bed is so lonely
It’s crowded with the clutter of me
He whispers in my ear “I love mortals in heat”
So I reach for the blunt of resentful rage
I lift but it slips to the floor and I crawl
I see my face in the piss
And I scream to the walls
If I Fall
Will I Get Up?
If I Fall
Will I Get Up?
Head nods in the distance
Theme songs of the lost and the wrong
I should be sleepy at dawn
And eat veggies at sundown
I hate who I be but I ‘m lovin’ me
I flee to comfort zones
Where I can judge then dismiss
That place where I’m god and shaytaan is my muse
Don’t hate me for a verse that we both consumated
Judgmental holy rollers spittin’ phlegm on my wounds
Can’t they see the stretch marks of my tortured prostration?
Negation of trips I slip on fruit peels?
Whether on the midnight asphalt or desert steps
Temptation ain’t a flower on pedestrian highways
So I need to stop walkin’
Whether asleep or awake
I need to stop rhymin’ start climbin’ those peaks
Not ‘cause they’re there
‘Cause I trust  ‘Cause I must!
They may laugh they may cheer
They may sing they may mock
I care not
With these hands my ego will scale
These mountains are mine
My tears know them well
My teeth bit those rocks
But them stones are the stairs
And success is the sojourn
So again I will climb
Again I will strive
Fight, claw, reach, scratch, pull, cling, sing!
I will not fall
I will get up
I will not fall
I will get up!
(Repeat)

Spoken Soul

by Brother Dash

In the forest of confusion
He sifts through realties and illusions
A ringing in his ear
Memories of emotional contusions
And his body got pain
And his heart hangs low
But don’t you symphathize ‘cause his fists gave blows
And life is a battle
Some say a journey
But that assumes a destination
And his pockets got lint
And his capital spent
But he refused to stay homeless!
La da di la da dow
Can’t live in the past the future’s born from the now
He knows about the blood on the rug
‘cause it dripped from the hole
Where the slug wouldn’t budge
From the tug from the pull
So he ripped then he slipped
On the pool he created
The pool much debated
Like the rays of the Sun
He absorbed what was stated
And…marinated
Ingredients mixed
Soon realized this won’t be a quick fix
Forgiveness takes time
And the ticks of the clock
Tock in between the lines (that you speak)
And sometimes they don’t rhyme
Sometimes they don’t sync

Sometimes they don’t jive (but he strives)

To do right by The One
Sit in the shade of the righteous one
The Sun might set but it rises
Slip ups followed by spiritual surprises
Keepin’ eyes’s on the prizes
This existence and heavenly permanence
Don’t get it twisted or confused
Try and box God leave the ring mad bruised

(and still confused)

You know it feels so good
To be college educated but still so hood

(you know grounded man)

He ain’t afraid of the mirror
He ain’t afraid of the mic
He ain’t afraid of the choices
He ain’t afraid of the unfamiliar
So Give glad tidings to the strange
The change that you seek
It may rise from the internal
And he’s made trails in that forest
And as he walks he seeks
And he’s got honey for his throat

‘cause the soul gotta speak
The soul gotta speak
The soul gotta speak
Owwwwwwwwwww

Can I Breathe?

by Brother Dash

This air I must reach
‘Cause I’m chokin’ on the phlegm
of the him and the her and the you and the them

Can I Breathe?

I best not speak
And I better not seek
And if I got cuts then I best not leak

But can I breathe?

I mean I Gotta, I Wanna
This world’s like a sauna
And I Can’t smell the fauna
My Nostrils are stuck!
With communal mucous
But don’t confuse this

Can I… Breathe?

Before my death?
I’m on a cliff
It won’t be suicide
They’ll call it murder
Please take my hand
Oh Wait!
Purdahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Can I breathe?

So much constriction
Friction, Inhibition
“Better watch your diction”
Culture shock
See he’s the hard place
And you’re the rock
If “Identity”
Means get rid of me
To become the we
Or become the you
I Become defined
I Become confined
Become defined
Become confined

Can I Breathe?

Don’t talk, Don’t think
Don’t float, Don’t sink
Don’t look, Don’t wink
Don’t hyperlink

Can I Breathe?

Don’t ask, Don’t tell
Got pain, Can’t yell
Don’t smile, Don’t frown
Don’t laugh, Don’t clown
There’s just one way
No workarounds

Can I Breathe?

Your style is truth
And I’m so uncouth
And these eyes must see your tapestry
And my soul must act accordingly

Breathe!

My lungs must fill
With the breadth of self will
My soul felt whole now it’s all broke up
Should I make you breathe me til you’re all choked up
I wanna breathe in a world not just in a nation
Escape from the weight of cultural suffocation
Feel the elation of spiritual liberation
Sing me a song of her creation?
And I don’t need your validation!

Breathe? Can I…Can I…

Breathe…Can I… Can I…

[huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh]
Breathe!

Don’t Wanna

by Brother Dash

I don’t really wanna be your…

Regrets and falsehopes
Your life of dysfunction
Your I shoulda, I coulda, I woulda
If only if

I don’t really wanna be your…

Replacement for him
Real or imagined
Your basement unfinished
Your hopes that diminish
I’m not the change in your pocket
That you try to make holler like a dollar

I don’t really wanna be your…
Mistake your misstep
You misspoke so dismiss

I don’t really wanna be
The child that you never had
Or that scene in the movie
Your sugar fix
Your candy wrapper
That you bought for 50 cent
I ain’t the daddy you never knew
Or the mama that refused
To excuse the juice you spilled
On her fine bearskin rug
The only thing we have in common
Is not seeing your yells
As cries for a hug
I don’t really wanna be your…

Clown on the stage
Your latin lover on the page
Your flesh made of rocks
With a heart that won’t bleed
I ain’t the man that won’t sin
Again..again…again…and? Again
I don’t really wanna be
Your emotional slave
Your missionary master
Told I can’t hurt
And I best to not cry
Play dead
Now look live
“Yassa boss” shuck and jive
I don’t wanna be your spit
Your mucous, your verbal defecation
Your pain nor your pleasure
Your quest for buried treasure
The face to your fist
The hell to your bliss
The heart to your knife
I’m looking for the thief
That punched a hole and stole my life!

My throat’s tight
My words choke
My pain speaks
My face soaked
My soul drips into a salt pool
‘Cause I don’t wanna be your fool

Scream

by Brother Dash

Beautiful one

Your pain reverberates

Suspended emotion

Is it love? Is it hate?

Admit you’re to blame?

Is there really a choice?

Your bail is denied

No freedom of voice

In a cell, In a hole

Even thoughts are confined

Tell her how can you think?

When the world sees your mind?

Oh beautiful one

Make the world feel your dreams

Jump on the stage

Grab the mic and just scream

Scream to the room filled with juries and judges

Scream to perfection they won’t get rid of their grudges

Scream to the heavens when you’re thirsty for rain

Scream long and bitter not short and sweet make it plain

That lump in your throat you can swallow with pride

But don’t let it run, hide or fester inside

That emotion of fear

The accusation of guilt

When your world turns cold wrap yourself in a quilt

Each thread, each square is a moment in time

Over time, they combine to block the doubts in your mind

The liberation of pain, the affirmation of you

You’ll rise from the ashes of the false and the true

The world becomes known through this battle of opposites

Posit this…you can’t know strength without fear

The inner voice is a jewel but silence ain’t gold

Put the pen in your hand and let your story be told!

Scream to the room filled with juries and judges

Scream to perfection they won’t get rid of their grudges

Scream to the heavens when you’re thirsty for rain

Scream long and bitter not short and sweet make it plain

Beautiful one

You trust in The One

And The One ain’t the one to leave you broken and battered

Shattered and scattered

Is your heart made of glass?

If it is here’s the glue

Look inside see the you

See the hue

See the color

Touch the texture of life

If you listen you will hear the funky jazz of your soul

Grab your and just play

Play, play plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay play

Make ‘me feel the pain that you feel

It’s so real

It’s so true

Speak for you

Speak for you

Just scream

To the room

Filled with juries and judges

Scream to perfection

They won’t get rid of their grudges

Scream to the heavens

When you’re thirsty

For rain

Scream long and bitter

Not short and sweet

Make it plain

Just scream