the best story is about home because that’s the story part

so tell me what you call me when i’m not around.
—Noname

often i be out &
about the words
moving quotes to the folks
like a fix.

don’t understand?

feel me this way:
the other day i was walking
through the old hood to see
me in the cheap duplexes
& all the wrong houses were
vacant &
some of our board ups
were blooming with new boys.

the last time i went to the church of my birth
all the old folks looked the same kind
of hard starched sharp they always been
& i been gone so long nobody
asked where i been.

look, every time i show up
at the function
it’s a surprise
party to my homies.

all i call my people
is what i say in they absence.

peep the props i cop from how hard
i represent the spots i hardly hit
but hail from.

feel me: she told me i didn’t
give her my best hours & i told her
here’s more & started pulling clocks
out my pockets & she said it’s time
to go ‘head on.