"An Education," A Poetry Post

Wait a minute...
sitdown-sitdown-sitdown and
be QUIet.

I say, ain't we ignoring the obvious, if
milk is five dollars and a loaf of bread is two how you
gone be able to make it on a
low. wage. job?

What you gone do if you must choose between a
bottle for your baby and a
shoelace for your work shoes?

I
believe it's time for me and you to talk about the
actual condition of a world about which you don't see
truth.

Youth is a privilege and time is oh so fleeting,
it's a gift but it will perish like a
fresh peach juice.

You think that hustling and beating down the block is some
profitable adventure but I suggest you take a
good, long pause.

Ain't nothing cool about
giving your every minute to the streets and running home so you can
hide it all.

Cause ain't a hustler alive that didn't have to run and hide to
save his neck from every soon-to-be
beat down thug.

And furthermore I never seen a man turn sixty on the corner,
flash his Rolex and ride off in his new sports car.

You best believe that life is fast and if you
choose to live it faster you will suffer,
you will suffer;
you will find it so hard.

Nobody's running baby; ain't nobody running,
we all walking; we all struggling; we trying to
get
ours.

Are you saying you prefer to spend
thirty of your life's years in some man's funk behind
the state's jail bars?

Ain't you considering that maybe if you
try a little harder you could change your life with
swift street charm?

I ain't suggesting you forget from whence you come; I'm saying
use what you have learned and make it
through life's storms.

Brevity is coming; it won't be defeated;
when you think you have all the time that you need you
run
out.

But you don't see it; you sitting up in my face looking like
"Who you think you are; what are you talking about?"

I'm saying "Baby I believe that if you start now..."
I'm saying "Baby I believe that if you start now..."
I'm saying "Baby I believe that if you start now...
You can still get a decent education...
An education to suit your every need in this life.
Cause you got time, cause you got time
if you start now.

Don't you believe me? I say, you can still fulfill your
destiny. I say, you can still fulfill your destiny if you
start now... if you start now... you still have a chance if you
start now and get an
education."

-T. D. James-Moss