What you'd expect...umm yeah

I decided to give a little more of my stuff from the past...this is the first slam poetry piece i did at the church...the one that made me uncomfortable and comfortable all at the same time lol.


WHAT YOU'D EXPECT

Who do you expect me to be?
Please dont believe the hype and the stereotype
Of a crazy nation lost at sea.

You expect me to walk out with a 40 raised high saluting my dead brothers,
Or to walk out smile grinnin teeth shining with pants down to here, which by the way is disgusting to my mother

Or I know, you expect me to walk out hip hop dancing to Missy Elliot or Ludacris
Or no I got it, singing Negro spirituals and gospels greatest hits
Or perhaps preaching and yelling and hootin and hollerin till I'm blue or rather still brown in the face
Or maybe you expect me to perform a step show with ease and choreographed grace

Oh wait I got it you expect me to walk out lickin my fingers from barbeque and chicken
Or even better yet red stained hands from the kool-aid I was just fixin
Oh no? Ok Ok, you expect collard greens in my right hand and pig feet in the other
With hot sauce and pork rinds in my pockets ready to share with others

Or no wait maybe you expect me to walk out limping from being shot so many times
Or maybe a necklace seriously BLINGIN filled with platinum and diamonds
Maybe youd expect a rap or two about shooting gangsta niggas
Or better yet a rap video where girls' butts seem to get bigger and bigger

Or maybe you dont EXPECT anything but THINK youre in the know
Like maybe you think Im scared to ski in water or on snow.
Or maybe that when my size and demeanor meet you in the middle of the night,
Youd be safer on the road by walking all the way on the other side.

I got it; you think that Ill steal from a store at the first chance I get.
Or even better you think your non black daughter would be a better steal for me to catch.
Or maybe that your family would be tainted by a darker hue.
Or what talk comes from things like that from the person in the pew in front of you.

Perhaps youre not as harsh as all that and you think so much better and extend more grace...
You think I should be dignified and poised with intelligence and respect like Sidney Portier
My Jack and Jill lifestyle with money and advanced education.
The top black jobs in corporate America according to the Black Enterprise April illustration

Or maybe you just expect me to sing from church all the way to Sony
Or better yet Ill be a comedian like your favorites, Chris Rock and Bernie

And maybe just maybe youre not any of that you expect NOTHING of me
And to tell you the truth my friend thats a better light for you to see

You expect me not to read well or speak well, but at fighting, Im amazing
Or maybe you expect schools filled with my color to have lower education
Or better yet maybe my color creates and makes a better team
We all know football or basketball wouldnt last without MY color scheme

Maybe a state filled with my kind is a poverty case to be helped
You give statistics on the news about how our city can no longer be helped
But have you lived there been there or even step foot inside county lines?
To see the beautiful picture awaiting you that isnt on Bourbon Street to find

Like the historic homes and kids jumping rope in double dutch unison
Or the ice cream man coming down the road selling fudge bombs for fifteen cents
You must have missed the pick up basketball games with local neighborhood kids
Or the musicians on the streets with washboards, accordions, banging on trash can lids

Every city has crime and people do time its just the way life rings.
Since when did a particular color or a single mother become a black thing?
Since when did people expect dark skin to commit crime and cause poverty?
And forget that Jesus had dark skin and died for YOU AND ME!

Im none of those and yet all of those let me see if I can explain
I suck at basketball, Im good at swimming and one day wonna jump out of a plane.
I love water skiing and plan on snow skiing the minute I get the chance
Im not a thug but Ill admit I CAN shake my booty and dance

I like Sidney Portier and Chris Rock too, but there jobs are not my fate
And to be real honest I love step teams, but at stepping Im not that great
I love God like you and try and follow him too, and my home church wasnt better than yours
We just did things different and loved our congregation just like I've found walking through these doors

Im here to learn from you and vice versa and I hope you can take something form this
I don't want a separate program for me and my people just for you, like Jesus, to understand how it really is
Ive grown up fine not poor at all with parents that are still together
Ive gone through bumps and trials and things and believe me there are issues I still have to weather

So Im not what youd expect at all Im definitely more than that.
Heck to be real honest I hate Snoop Dog but Im a fan of Basement Jax

Dont believe the hype and the stereotype of a crazy nation lost at sea.
Theres much more to know and more to grow and it starts with you and me
Because none of us in these walls that stand tall has God ever rejected
So none of us at all should have the gall because were not what youve expected