Neighborhood Lessons

Lessons not learned in a classroom.

Blackboard streets and they have one thing to teach

It's neighborhood lessons

so lets begin this class because all I can hear are the screeches

and when you do

you hit that pavement and hug the floor like an old friend

because let's face it

thats how you lost your old friend.

I didn't say this was going to be easy

every once in a while you have to dig up a grave and move on to the next page.

Neighborhood lesson of the day

DON'T walk alone even in the day.

Ask me how it feels to be asked if you want to sell yourself at the age of 14

because when they say it's your future

all they can see is themselves

because they didn't stop to remember the lessons they went through day by day

and just like that try to live day by day

neighborhood lessons teach you to survive outside that classroom

to live in fear about never being able to live without fear

one shot,

two shot

say goodbye neighborhood lessons not learned

when I look at my feet they learned it's better to run towards the inside of my home because not even the front porch safe

sacred ground don't mean much unless you got that sacred touch

and i'm not talking about being holy

i'm talking about that millimeter clutch

it's easier to die than face the gun

even when everyone has it faced at your guts because they don't think you have the guts to stand and face the lessons the neighborhood taught us

but I wanna run away

until I hear those lessons fade

into the streets

where I was made.