POETRY | ‘MOMENTUM’ BY DAMIAN CARLTON

Edu­ca­tion need for soci­et­al mobil­ity, clari­on calls to give back to my people

Life robs me of my dreams and cuts me to real­ity, like it was groomed by Danny Ocean

Slowly switch up the tempo, hope­fully mutate this poem into a bildungsroman

respect allit­er­at­ive law, com­plex cross­word you then migrate, Where? Fours Words. Oman.

Focus, they dis­miss, demon­strate con­tempt, “He’s full of him­self, he is not pithy”

Not worth of a New­s­week by-line, here take my advance in advance, keep it polite

While you stiff me,

It’s really hard to make a liv­ing, exist to sur­vive yet I’m not living

Set tar­gets, miss them, lose focus, how we become com­pla­cent & sim­ul­tan­eously shifty

In the First place, mis­match between our dreams and the real place, we live in

Not some uptown Man­hat­tan condo, I mean depression

This Lack of fulfillment

is some­thing we must question

now than ever before how we got here

That Hou­s­ton is the question,

Mis­matches, missed matches, catch fire

Build­ings sky­scrapers and pyres, enmeshed in fire

to the corpse of dis­il­lu­sion­ment I say this

May you not even­tu­ally cross with us to Jannah ,

Saluta­tions and greet­ings to Osiris and Thoth, pass my regards to Nefrekeptah

Lyr­ic­al pil­lage on the estab­lish­ment, don’t take it per­son­al this is busi­ness, this is what

I meant, heav­en sent, some of my bene­fact­ors describe them­selves yet they

nev­er pay me more than a few cents

Can pay my mort­gage, can­not be a dili­gens pater­fa­mili­as if I can’t cater to my kin

Ignore the legalese that I spew like Mali­an jazz musi­cian weaves notes with ease,

ceases and desist (vice-versa)

Refuse to fail my own like Ike­mefuna who was felled by Obi was his kin,

that’s fail­ing your chi, defin­i­tion of sac­ri­lege, that is fail­ing you chi

Ascent of an ascet­ic, keep it real, no mat­ter how many bruises you pick up

Life’s a blazin, nev­er stop mov­ing, as we push forth

nev­er rest­ing in this Sis­yph­ic ascent whom should I thank if I can even afford?

 

 

 

 

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.