Locksmith

I feel
A little
Apprehensive t Talking to
You you about
My life
With my
Own voice

Although i
Think people
Will relate
And understand-Understand

Dade county miami, 1976
A baby boy living in a hotel with his parents
Mommy was a maid there
Don't really know what pops did
But, he was training to be a locksmith
We moved up the coast
Back to where the grandparents live
Perhaps for cash
I didn't think to ask as a kid
And I don't know where pops went
But things seemed stable
Even when he left his keys on the table
My single mom she was able to make it
Without relationships every so often
Pops would show up and babysit
It never made me think about
His day-job a lot
Until the day when my mom changed the locks
In those days when he watched me
When I think back in some ways
Were, made up of coffee, six packs
And gun-play pornography and projects
Step-siblings and half-relatives
But having kids was bad for business
Girlfriends were the rage then
Babies in the playpen
Toddlers were plopped in front
Of television stations
There wasn't just one way to say things
Between the two households I outgrowed
All types of combinations
Breaking these codes and
Peeking through keyholes
Finger on the pulse, stethoscope
Stroke the needle put my ear to the ground
And hear the pins drop
Gears in the clock turned like my stomach
Turned like the dial on a padlock
Rhode Island was the backdrop
The world was the oyster crack the shell
Hand the pearl over to the lawyer
In family court I make judgments
I'm a product of my father's trade
And my mother's substance

1980 south Africa
Johannesburg little Lucy in the sky
With the blackest birds where planets turn
Crash and burn her mother gave birth
Landed face first, Terra Firma
Came to save Earth but wait, first
She was raised there til '86
Parents altogether two siblings and
A baby sis then fate had fixed the next
Stage of her destiny
The decision to move dad made it an
They migrated to
The place that shaped her core
Time ticket taper wars
That caved towards herself
So she tried to make sense
Of the purdy doom and dirt of the universe
How she fit the pandemonium
Writing saved her life
She took the pen and pad and wrote in them
Sentences structure and sufficiency
The one the got away from the
Usual fishes in the sea
Swum toward the underground of
Culture and mental webs
Erased bad thoughts and guilt
She used pencil lead
To draw her own conclusions and
Shade in the absolutes
Finds herself in tracks and
Damn that's the truth
She's come a long way
To be here this very minute
And continues until she meets her
Grave buried in it
Every instant is a potential we control
She tries to capture the
Magic moments secrets hold in the heart
Emanating love and self-discipline
Right now she's standing in front
Of a well wishing in throws the keys down
Wow, head came and picked the lock
Time heals with open arms
Spread straight at six o'clock