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Gangsta Momma
My mom is so gangsta
She dropped out of school at fourteen
Left her water hut home
To slang a living on the streets.
Some gangstas dodge stray bullets
Mom danced the duck-and-cover
Arms flung over her head
To block the blaring of sky high sirens
Rearrange the target of American bombs.
My mom is so gangsta
She said “Fuck this war.”
Carried nothing but
Everything she believed
In her heart
Onto a wooden asylum
To ride the tide of changing times
Bare the thrashing of turmoil against thin plank walls.
Deeper than gangsta whips and low riders
She cruises below sea level until light welcomes her back into the world.
My mom is so gangsta
She hustled the ocean
Slayed sea monsters
Fought off pirates
And lived still to talk about it all.
Except she doesn’t talk about it
Because unlike most gangstas
She doesn’t need to brag about how many times
She almost died
To know she’s a bad ass survivor.
Fuck street cred.
My mom got the motherfuckin Pacific under her belt.
My mom is so gangsta
She said “Fuck the U.S. government.”
Robbed the establishment of millions of dollars to rebuild a family overseas.
Sneak in new family members through immigration loopholes
Plead the fifth, play innocent and blast her fresh off the boat attitude to the exponential degree.
My mom is so gangsta
She keeps her personal savings account at home
Tucked away in a secret place where the bank can’t fuck with her money.
My mom is so gangsta
She sleeps with the surveillance tapes on.
My mom is so gangsta
She walks with elbows high and hips that jerk from side to side.
My mom is so gangsta
She wears gloves during the day.
My mom is so gangsta
She will murda you with her eyes.
My mom is so gangsta
She lived a thousand lives in one.
My mom is so gangsta
She doesn’t need to brag about how many times she almost died.
Because my mom is so gangsta
She is ready to die
My mom is so gangsta
Because my mom loves her family to death.
So We Give
In a not so far away land called Famous
Water fountains squirt champagne
Famous citizens pick diamonds off the sky
And the cameras never stop rolling.
It’s hard to say what people want more:
To share their talent with the world
Or
To create a world that craves them.
Meals become overrated
The only thing worth thirsting for
Is an appetite for the limelight.
People spend their lives navigating the galaxy to discover a path into Famous Land.
The social revolution on YouTube opens windows
If Esmee Dente can do it,
Then who will be next?
So we give.
Building a followship is as good as self-proclaimed fame
Pave a way to build highways for high volume traffic
A drive-thru view of flashy billboards flashing high profile names.
So we give.
We master webcam conversations
Confessions on the videoblog
Drop panties like it’s a race
Become the Wordpress narcissist
Post YouTube videos with misleading titles like,
“Pictures of Rhianna’s Pumpkin Smashed Face”
Lure traffic to no such photos
Only the disappointment of another video dummy
Doing the daily gossip cast.
We poke the hell out of each other until poking got boring
So we hopped on the Facebook status until that got boring
(except that has yet to happen because there is never a dull moment)
So we doubled the fun with our friends on Twitter
Triple the shutter speed to capture our features
Became crack fiends with the Facebook Live Feed
And like any addiction,
Our brains are encapsulated before we know it.
So captivated by the contents of the computer
Eyeballs blaring before the monitor like zombie faces waiting for live news to reel in juicier than CNN headlines
Because everybody wants to know what everybody else is doing.
Even more
Everybody wants everybody else to know what THEY are doing.
So we give.
Mobile uploads to incriminate
Fuck you Sally’s to instigate
Baby baby baby I loooove you’s
Now everybody knows Sally is a bitch
(or the person posting
or both)
Who’s that slut in the photo?
F.M.L.
Let me be drama
Follow me to Wonderbar
Follow me to work
Don’t follow me but FYI I’ll be at fish taco in 1200 hours
Follow my wall comments, my recent activity, my every thought
Follow my Tweets
Follow my friends
Follow my insecurity
Follow my ego
Follow my fame
Follow me seeee?
As long as there is someone following
I must be worth watching
I must be worth something
I must be worth.
There was a time when the U.S. government tried hard to be sneaky
Secretive about relinquishing privacy rights
Fine lines in the Patriot Act.
But the people put up a fight
Because the people wanted more.
So we give.
We give so much of ourselves
Taking is no gamble
The game is easy
No need for asking
We’ve already surrendered ourselves empty
Private information now suddenly a public spectacle
Hoarded away in a central bureau.
So we give.
We forget what privacy felt like
It’s hard to resist the excitement
When the news reel is rolling so fast
Jump in
If you don’t Tweet your way into the digital world
You might find yourself banging the space bar
Drift off into the galaxy
A forgotten star.
Compromise our wants with our haves.
So we give.
Swarvoski Swallows
Swarvoski crystals on the mobile hanging over the top
Slap a label to the cradle before baby can walk
VH1’s Behind the Music put a child to sleep
Fantasize about the fame until they dreaming too deep.
Raise a membrane quick to straighten at the sound of ca-ching
Become the next contestant of celebrity fling
Paparazzi are friends, party up on their lens
Take a shot to take a shot until it’s Flicker revenge
Everybody ascend, reach for the Hollywood hills
Beneath the world is flooding with the fake and the real
Everybody’s running, is it deal or no deal?
Everybody’s stunting, now who’s keeping it real?
Swallow Swarvoski diamonds just to shine from within
Follow the runway lead to find a place to begin
It’s a butt naked win, destination unknown
Million dollar domains but there’s nothing like home.