Not Busy, Productive (Rap/Inspirational/Book#3)

Not Busy, Productive

Hopeful desire,

I’m reaching higher,

Veins pumping iron,

Business attire,

Dress shirt needs iron,

Mindful tenacity,

Give me what I earn,

Mindless audacity,

Worked for what I earned,

Mental capacity,

Spirit afire,

Devil’s a liar,

World’s feeling heavy,

Bench press this iron,

Children are dyin’,

Mind-ful-ness mired,

We’re not an island,

Let’s all inspire,

Great things, yes, great things,

Let’s all inquire,

Real strength acquired,

Real love transpired,

Goals, thoughts rewired – Vision devoured

Re-sults perspired.

I’m so proud of you, ou.

I’m so proud of you.

[Louisiana school board rejects big oil’s request for tax breaks.]

Not scared of sharks lurking,

No longer a mermaid,

I am now a merqueen,

Or if I choose a merking,

On my own since thirteen,

Doctor path or nursing,

I can do all things, yeah, I can do all things.

I am here for you, ou,

If you’re sad or hurting.

Momma’s boy is nursing,

Being cool is y-u-u-r thing,

Scary Friday thirteen,

Can’t keep you from learning,

Challenge, never shirking,

Your wheels keep on turning,

Happiness is churning,

Feels so smooth like butter.

Feels so smooth like butter.

Look how hard you’re working,

Look how smart you’re working,

You are meant for great things,

I am so proud of you, ou.

I am so proud of you.

[Is there more salt than chili in your bag of chips?

Chile says no to no warning labels on snacks like chips

advertised with colorful cartoon characters for kids.]

I find love, agape,

In the middle of Mojave,

The sweet life, agave,

Every day, I carpe – diem!

I ride bikes,

No car pay,

My bedroom has carpet,

I’m barefoot

Like Gandhi (Gan-day),

My bloodline’s

Ashanti (Ashan-tay),

I’m feelin’ so fancy (fun-say)

Bon appétit, bonne santé,

My love life is healthy (health-ay),

I’ve found me, comprendes?

I’ve found love, it’s plenty (plen-tay),

Now what else can I say – list it like Gawande!

No more talks of one day.

Impossible is nothing. Impossible is nothing.

You don’t need permission to love.

And you don’t need permission to lead.

I am so proud of you, ou.

I am so proud of you.

Love, always, Jemel Roberson

[He was raised by Dr. King himself. Kaepernick knelt in honor.

Kaepernick knelt in honor and was raised by Dr. King himself.]

They want me to pause

Like a comma,

But I’m doing good, fam,

That’s my truth – Nirvana,

Contracted with the heavens,

In my non-compete clause,

My goals pick up steam

Like I’m in a sauna.

Summer in Neva(w)da(uh),

Conducive to success,

Day labored sweat equity,

That’s my one and only karma.

Mother Nature, I am one

With your aura, flora and fauna.

Deep breaths –

The only pauses I’ve got left. (Deep Breath.)

I’m giving my all on this verse,

I’m leaving it all unrehearsed,

‘Cause some opportunities

Simply can’t be placed in reverse.

I may not go unscathed,

But I will live my life uncaged.

I’ve unleashed my potential.

I am here to stay.

Long-term success is never planned in dog years.

Catch me if you can,

But you can’t hold me back

With your good-boys-and-girls-get-a-treat dogma.

Try your best to break me

But I won’t break.

Look closely, but don’t you be deceived,

The breaking that you see

Is just my pause. Pause.

Take a break. Reflect.

Inner Rasta restep,

Refresh, tabula rasa,

Deep thought, zen it out, mandala.

Well-wishing, ripples of love

With ancestral pebbles skipping from

My generational mancala.

I am greater than the drama.

I’m focused.

Focus on yourself (not me),

Push forth with what you have,

Not what you lack,

If you’re not taking two steps forward,

You’re taking three steps back.

Let’s go beyond black labels. Period. –

Firsthand experience,

Don’t let authentic happiness find you,

Find it first. Choose your own culture.

Haters never prosper.

Subliminal message of triumph: [I’ve just passed my state exam.]

Reflection, reflection, reflections.

A guide,

A helping hand,

But not too coddled.

Just people to get you going at full throttle.

Teach you how to tackle strife

Through your team huddles.

Think twice about your life beyond beer bottles.

Be wary of those who smile

But they’re true scoundrels.

Lest you go down a slippery slope,

It’s best to force them all to just skedaddle.

Sky view, third row, now here’s the case, and let’s be brief,

Unscrupulous business leaves you on a boat with no paddles,

But mindful mentors can guide your weaving

Through life’s weary jungles.

So, seek health and seek help.

Good health is great wealth.

Invest in sound advice

From those who don’t mumble.

Rumble and not bumble or bungle,

Treasured music of the heart,

Beat your own chest like bongos,

Keep your head up even when your cookie crumbles.

Up, down, merry-go-round,

Seesaw, see, saw, seen,

Preschool distractions,

Next course of action:

Where’s your prebuttal?

I objected, aka, hey, I demurred,

Hatred, we must purge, cool cat, I just purred,

Winning argument, abysmal,

Bees knees your business –

Leave something behind for you

And possibly your bundles.

Be proud of yourself.

Take a look in the mirror.

It’s time for you to redefine your struggles.

Reach another level. – Picture that.

The beauty of life can be ageless.

Tell your own story, but know,

The best type of model (pause)

Is a role model. Please reflect.

Not busy, productive. (Long Pause.)

[Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician and African American female trailblazer, and other ‘Hidden Figures’, finally receive formal recognition. What an inspiration for generations to come.]

I charted my own path,

And didn’t stop to ponder

Or bother ask the risk(s).

It’s a shoot for the moon,

Reach for the stars type of thing;

Fingers crossed as I crossed the road,

But success was only mine to have

In asterisks.

Adversity has been my only guarantee.

I fight with my hands tied, in eagerness,

Hoping to make a change beyond myself,

Beyond my life – small matter –

And even perhaps beyond our galaxy.

Self-love echoed, I’m proud, you know,

But I don’t want to live my life with too much pride.

Action: Eyes open and awake,

In the middle of the night, (pause)

I find myself looking to the stars above

And not the ones below to be my guide. (Long Pause.)

[Insert good news here. Insert empowering fact/story here.]

Evenfall,

Even in the fall,

Even if I fall,

The sun will rise

And so will I, again.

My internal policy,

Temperate times are the only falls

That seem stronger than my will, maybe.

Adversarial, even perhaps terminal

Sometimes truth can seem so cold,

So much so that I get the chills.

This can’t happen normally,

I live in disguise,

No more lies,

I live in the skies,

No more outliers,

You must be an anomaly,

I am living proof

Meant to contradict the past

And all other fallacies. – Change is possible.

I am on the way.

Next line’s a potential scary headline:

At the height of your success,

In your apex,

Shirt off,

You had six packs,

Now it’s twelve packs

And three packs a day. –

This is often the results of fame

Washed away,

And I don’t want that to be me,

If I make it. If I ever make it,

Will I fall into these hard times?

Priceless,

Drop-shipped,

it’s a free fall.

As I facilitate my freedom call,

They scream, “It’s a free for all.”

It’s my food for thought,

And too many want a free lunch.

Peacemeal, “friends” tergiversate,

Everyone, it seems,

Just want me to empty my plate.

I create.

I give everything I’ve got.

Loss of privacy – suck it up,

You should not be incontrollable,

Lots of piracy, patch it up,

Your soul shouldn’t be so poachable.

Egg-cellent. It can all be feasible,

It’s the fee for all, all artists, all writers;

The sound of silence is so loud,

Even on my worse day, if there is a crowd,

I must be approachable.

Convoluted thoughts,

I alluded to the truth,

Don’t be insecure,

Social engineering at its best,

Hold on lest you fall,

Find success on our tall ladder,

It’s a tall order, but climb on,

Yes, you must,

No more second chances.

No more time to rest

Or the time to cleanse your gallbladder,

– They throw stones at me;

They think I’m a gallbladder. –

No more breaks,

No more elbow space,

No more room for error,

No more time to eat your greens,

No more time for drinking water,

No more time to live,

While you try to live the dream.

Now I’m wide awake. Pause.

[I just got myself a job.]

I need not be too complex,

I have no right to contest,

This might be my one and only shot,

I confess,

If there’s no real chance

Of ever winning this contest,

Ignominious address,

I must reflect on my words,

And hope that they simply do not lose context,

As they reach every low-income youth complex,

Giddily, what’s next?

I have an obligation to you.

You are a fellow human being.

Elemental truths told periodically,

Mendeleev,

Evidential proof scrolled electronically,

Pedagogically, noble words aloud,

Philosophically, I can fully recognize my now.

I accept it. I can grow. I won’t leave.

I can grow within it. I can face it. I can face them.

The nobleness of now is filled with purpose,

They cannot stop me from living.

And it feels hard to concentrate,

Life is just too short to only consider, but not do.

I have never been nearer/closer to my fears,

I now finally understand,

Now, we’re friends,

Fear, please, may I hold your hand? (Long Pause.)

[Another low-income teen started and now manages a

successful entrepreneurship venture.]

I won’t stop playing basketball,

But I started learning how to play golf.

So much clout, I am teeming up with hope,

I’m now teaming up with folks

Who have enough to donate funds

In real large sums,

Everything in one basket, whole in one,

Success hungry money like a Maddoff ? –

White collar, blue collar, no collar,

Crime is crime. Keep it legal,

My economy seems sluggish, I’m a slugger,

Did I cover all the bases?

Nothing stolen.

Good moral fiber is just-good for the colon.

I don’t want to be a show-off.

No disposable income for fiber optics,

No uptick, austere lifestyle, no aesthetics,

Don’t stare right now,

No collateral, not athletic,

Movement’s feeling unilateral,

Still, dedicated to my game,

Mindset like I’m in the playoffs;

Keeping it ethically responsible,

Staying far away from actions leading upstate,

I just want my cash to grow, quickly on the uptake,

So that I can have the time to do, sustainably,

Those meaningful things.

No rings yet, married to the game,

It’s time to refill my bucket.

It’s time to list them on the net.

Hopefully no bias,

I just hope to cast a net,

I’m gifting my way to a network,

Can I focus on my net worth?

I just want enough to give it all away,

And still have more coming.

I’m so passionate about this plan, really,

I can’t even take a day off,

It’s so much more than just money,

So many emotions to check off on my bucket list,

I am so dismayed

For not getting on the graduation list this May. –

Who knows?

I just want my light to glow,

Weather permitted, rainmaker, five am,

First in line at the local bake shop,

I just want to be the breadwinner,

I am up. You just let me chase the bucks –

I just want to make it rain, dear

Ode to Rudolph – who knows. Read, check.

(I just read the previous line again.)

I can hear my pockets jingle,

I haven’t bought a brand-new pair, for me,

In nearly fourteen years. It’s been real.

I’ve been stacking chips, _ringles.

All rest under my mattress, paean,

Liquid assets, I’ve been racking singles.

Attention real estate agents,

I’m an open book. I’m ready to mingle.

Someday soon,

I’ll be ready for an open house.

I just want to leave behind something besides

My funeral expenses. – That’s the plan.

I’m ready to tackle the business hustle,

Question is, can I do it all and still be free? –

And still have purpose, and still have hope,

And have the time to just be still,

When stillness speaks? –

Can I make the time? I can make it.

[Auburndale, Massachusetts, neighbors learn sign language

on their own initiative to welcome baby diagnosed as deaf.]

Is there more to life?

Is this the grand finale?                       

I can sense my generational

And ancestral victories

From my petri dish.

Spirit rich, at the core,

I just smell my roses,

Petrichor, I now tell myself,

“Do you not know who you are?”

The teenage me was not so eloquent.

My expressions seem so animated.

I’ve been eating my feelings like a platypus.

I just feel so ill.

Analytical, Jungian psychology,

Where, oh where, is my animus?

Retail cannot heal.

Life is just too short for long lines.

I’m learning to leave it all behind,

Namaste.

Physical bruises seem to go away fast,

But emotional bruises left unaddressed

Can last beyond a lifetime.

Generational hurt,

Can we address this cancer with candor?

Why don’t we just talk about it?

Emotional expletives, musically explicit,

Being dismissive can be addictive,

And can breed substantial addictions.

Silence.

Beyond the noise is diction. – Seek love.

See beyond the flaws,

See the good, see the good in all,

Live your life in awe.

I can make a difference in so many ways.

I just wish that she could tell me,

“I’m so proud of you, ou, I’m so proud of you.”

There’s only one you. I love you, mom.

(Pause. Fin.)

In unrelated news:

I don’t mean to bore you,

If you’re wealthy,

This is just my story,

Melic dreams on my mind,

Can you spare me, simply,

A moment of your time?

If I’m speaking on your dime,

I’m sorry,

Time to reel the credits.

I just felt like I needed to go full charge,

Since this might be my only line of credit;

Lack of financial literacy is an academia-based epidemic.

Thank you for your interaction,

This indeed is my last transaction. —

OPM, Second tier spending,

Common sense economics, [Bank: IDA]

Spend the money that your money makes.

Present thinking, forward thinking,

You can overcome the past;

Delayed gratification,

The Stanford marshmallow experiment,

Can you sacrifice eating out? – Out of the question.

Can you pay off a small rental property

In fifteen years? – What good will that do for me?

If you can’t pay it off in seven,

It might not be a low-risk investment.

Does it make you income,

If you tallied the total retail cost

Of all the stuff you have around,

Would you have enough

For a three percent down payment?

If you’re lucky enough to have this luxury,

To make things happen,

Are you willing to save

For five years after college

While living in your momma’s basement?

Personal finance education, leadership,

Community engagement, social justice, mindfulness,

Self-fulfillment, love, unconditional self-love,

Planning, goalsetting, life, active, present, now –

Not busy…





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