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"THE REDNESS IN MY EYES"
If you look into my eyes you'll see red
Red because of all the tears
Caused from so much pain one has endured.
Red for homesick,
Missing my love ones while locked away.
Red for fear
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of losing my life at a young age for something I didn't do
The redness in my eyes us a sign for the color of hate.
A sign for the natural high I holds everyday
But despite all the things the redness in my eyes mean
Through the redness of my eyes, I still hopes to see a better
tomorrow...the redness in my eyes."
----Written by Toronto Patterson April 3, 1999
"LIFE IS REAL"
From birth to a toddler
Life and the big picture you couldn't see.
Death wasn't a thought.
Gaining interest in TV, you got fascinated by cartoons,
immortalizing the characters, thinking you can't die.
As we all did, you tried to fly.
Now, you break your leg, becoming a little hobbler,
then realizing a superhero is something you can't be.
But all along, thinking trying to fly isn't your fight
Now learning right from wrong as you got much older.
Still unable to see life and death for its worth, you get much bolder.
So you leave home, going to the streets,
being not capable to stand the 'kitchen's heat.'
For being raised around the streets
they accepted you with no charge.
Seeing the great fury in them,
now the life and death picture starts to get large.
Acknowledging the fact, you stay with the street game,
gets you a street name,
gains you street fame,
and is having big thangs.
The streets accepted you for free, but what you didn't know
is once in them there's a cost.
A friend dies, a mother's son lost. (Damn)
Having love for your boy and hood gets you ruthless;
a bullet catches you in your back for being careless.
Had to shed your first blood to see.
You comprehended then that you don't want to decease.
Now the light comes and you is given a second chance,
but you goes back to your hood
failing to recognize the recent occurrence.
Another homie drops dead right in your countenance
as others hobble around.
You stare into your homie's eyes
and watch as he takes his last breath.
Immediately, you feel a chill
and know then that LIFE IS REAL.
Now you want to leave, but ignoring the facts you stay,
thinking you can beat the streets and have a higher praise.
It didn't take long after you made your decision to stay
when police came through your street and raided
getting a majority of your homeboys and you.
And when hearing you are being charged with capital murder
and illegal substance sales,
it wasn't long before you turned the color blue.
For knowing you are about to have hell in a cell.
You shake your head and remain looking to the ground.
As you sit and think about this capital case
and trying to touch base,
a guard comes and hands you a tray, you turn it down,
for having no taste.
Now you think, ifs... mans... buts... whys...
Coming clear now is the only way anybody leaves the streets,
is by jail or one dies.
The time has come for trial,
where others will sit and decide what to do with your life
just as you finally realize, LIFE IS REAL.
©2000 Toronto Patterson
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