"The Great Deception," A Poetry Post

If you run fast,
you don't need anything.

All you gotta do is run,
every day,
and watch the time,
watch the time,
watch the time,
and one day somebody gone come along and say,
"My God! You're fast!"

Then,
you won't need anything.

If you got the look,
you don't need anything.

All you gotta do is work it,
keep it fit and tight and toned,
paint your face in the perfectest hues,
dress yourself in the most relevant,
and one day somebody gone come along and say,
"My God! You're beautiful!"

Then,
you won't need anything.

If you got ups,
you don't need anything.

All you gotta do is take a hundred
free throw shots a day and
a hundred shots from the outside and
play street ball and school ball
every free moment you have and
one day somebody gone come along and say,
"My God! You got skills!"

Then,
you won't need anything.

If you got lyrics,
you don't need anything.

All you gotta do is cut a mix tape
with the hottest rhythms the world has
ever heard and string together a
number of choice words over a
catchy beat and
one day somebody gone come along and say,
"My God! You the king of these streets!"

Then,
you won't need anything. 

You won't need anything but the
ability to manage a checkbook and
the ability to read and understand a
legal contract and
the ability to maintain
healthy relationships and
the ability to communicate clearly
your true expectations.

You won't need anything but
the ability to check yourself when you
go too far and
the ability to express strongly in print your
objections when necessary and
the ability to make the right phone call
to the right person and
say the right things at the
right time to
hopefully save yourself from the flames of
destruction.

You won't need anything except
the ability to delay gratification and
the ability to withstand temptation and
the ability to be intellectually and
economically flexible.

You won't need anything but a
miracle to make up for
all the time you wasted
not getting all the things you
needed because you thought
all it took was a single novelty skill to
make it in this world.

The new and beautiful are new and beautiful
for a moment.

The great deception is that if you
live your new and beautiful out loud,
you will never become old and
outmoded.

And the truth is
you need a whole lot more of everything else
if you want even a
little chance of
enjoying your exceptionality
in a big way.

-T. D. James-Moss