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16
I never really liked school
although I did love to learn
there was no shine or value
to the measure of the golden rule
I felt like if I dropped out
I would be like a fish out of water
trying to breathe so I stayed in school
no teacher ever taught me life 101
I learned my lessons outside
of room B123 in the wide open
space like the deep blue sea
on the playground of my youth
sipping on cartons of milk and juice
where seagulls flew annoyingly
covering the grounds with
disrespect for humanity
I was stepping in it no matter
where I was standing
knee deep in agony imagining
the me that no one else could see
nor hear the thunderous roar of the
electric activity of my eccentric energy
the force field that threw a cloak
around me always dreaming while
others were scheming to break glass
and climb through windows
breaking and entering their fate
jumping over the gate arriving home late
to find nothing but trouble on their plates
things that I viewed to be such a waste
I salivated for a different taste
like King Kong climbing up
the Empire State for what he loved
I was scaling the Watts towers
trying to find the mind power
behind the idea of the design
mesmerized and inspired by art
that spectacle had a piece of my heart
a fragment that set me worlds apart
from the thoughts of my counterparts
I always wondered what motivated
my teachers to want to teach
children of those with lost souls
most of our dads were locked up
in Folsom, San Quentin
or Soledad penitentiary
I was on the yard planning my escape
this kind of lesson wasn't liberating
it came with a life or death sentence
that kind of time was not ticking away
in my mind because I held the blueprints
to break free as soon as the bell rung
there was a change in me I went back
to class sat up and paid attention
made the grade, graduated educated
no credit goes to the conspired
educational system that was against me
moving forward I just had to be free
so I did what I had to do to reinvent me
and create a new way of thinking
