What's Goin On

(Thank u Marvin Gaye for the inspiration)

By Stacey Tolbert

War shoots at the core of my existence

Cuz we got weapons of mass destruction at the local café

Right next to red white and blue YMCA Rec centers

Fatigues tire me

And men in blue tote quiet machine guns to unsuspecting victims

Crack cocaine is the lullaby

Surfers/wiggers/tweakers/breakers/hustlers/players/

politicians and CEO’s

Rock on…

The president has gone out to play

Golf balls hit my favorite tree

And it has invisible lynch marks on it as ancestors watch on

Brown boys hang themselves with phat farm belts and cell phone chargers

Where have all the elders gone?

Pre pubescent shawties push baby carriages while they pop bubblegum and scoff at chipped nails

Babies come pre-disposed with heifer tendencies

Cuz mama grazed on government owned hormonal farms

13 gave her ironed new growth, hip-hop hips, C cup breast,

BeyonceBritneyJlo booty and newly covered Scooby snack coochie

And folk, my folk, our folk, your folk laugh, point, stare, glare,

be furiously fumin’ at them B.E.T. clothes she wear

But…here’s the catch:

pops picked em out,

he be scout of all exotic clothing for HIS baby girl

pimp with the plan, curator of the seed, the reason for the bleed,

daddy’s lil girl be doin’ homework after oral sex and u, we, us always ask

“chald yo parents know u dressed like that?”

Elementary teachers sayin’ the world is not black and white but shades of gray

does that mean there’s no room for brown, for colors, for rainbows?

Where have all the elders gone?

Millennium kindergartners are clueless about big wheels

Half can’t tell you nuthin’ bout 2 plus 2

But 80 percent can school u on PS2

Books are on the endangered species list right next to world peace

In times of depression I ponder being a couch potato but

There is no more good television

Or maybe filling my frustrations with good but

McDonald’s fries are still the best but not like they used to be

Voodoo Princes I’m not but I been tryna conjure up a spell

For happiness

Yellin’ 108 mantras for 45 days

After I pray

Knees bare from THANK U JESUS when I’m able to crack a smile

I keep stirrin’ the pot but pieces of joy keep stickin’ to the bottom of the pan

Optimistic spatula already been reality melted down

Some rich robe wearin’ leaders be conservatively preachin’

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy while they

make altar boy’s stay after

but I know a local headliner who gets no story leads…

father “Leroy Jones” don’t neva make the news although his lil shack in the village

be savin’ souls on the daily

he don’t make altar boys stay after, cuz he makin’ alter calls

he be janitor by night

playin headphones songs of “Victory is mine….victory is mine…vic to ry today is mine…”

but u, we, us

don’t know who Brother Leroy is

cuz his donations come in the form of thanksgiving baskets

for his flock

or love offerins’ of OJT while doin’ OJP, ie; (on the job trainin’ while doin’ on the job prayin”)

and it’s not important that next door is a liquor store

cuz them cats on the corner are always there for Wednesday night Bible study

Where, where have all the elders gone?

Use to be chico stick, now o lator, later gater corner stores and miss Johnson would always

Peek out the door “baby, you on your way home cuz u know yo mama strict bout them street lights,

now come get this sweet potato pie I cooked for ya Aunt Mackey’s funeral

and tell e’rybody the Johnson’s send there love.”

aint no more elders doin’ that no more.

Hell, we don’t even know our neighbors

I don’t even know my neighbors

Do you even know your neighbors?

Who are your neighbors?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE ELDERS GONE?

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