The Essence

You wanna stop the violence
Then you need to break the silence
Cause thats the real killer
Shallow and fickle
she leads you to believe everything is better then what it seems
She's the carrot leading our stallions to live in trap games and pipe dreams
Keeping young women slaves
and turns young men into feinds

You wanna stop the violence,
then stop the silence,
its the silence that wills us
strength to endure grating words and stifle screams
Leaves mother huddled in puddled corners
while fixated eyes of her youth decipher false truths of what a man should be
Equates abuses into lovers way
See silence taught mother it had to be this way
That he only "beats me because he loves me, just in his own way"
It is in the silence that mother taught  daughter to believe
she should never be heard and always only seen
So daughter shifts her focus to that cash money,
her entire world is c.r.e.a.m
Fuck niggas, get money,
So by age 14,
she had lost her virginity 
Misplacing values like the keys for her shiny new mercedes
Daughter is now the next video hoe-fessional on a small screens
Trading in her platinum for a little bling bling
You say stop the violence but its the silence that is killing us
Made older brother have to hit the block
Two time felon he can't get a job
So he goes with what he got
That semi-auto, or maybe the glock
That late night,
distracted by his scheming,
got knocked by the cops,
3rd time's the charm,
he decides to flee.
Now big brother resides in gangstas paradise,
watching down over me

You wanna stop the violence
then stop this silence,
the pretending,
that you're knowledge is unending because you can read.
Not sharing our knowledge,
asking no questions
repeating all lies
Patronize and antagonize each other
then be willing to pop a pill to get by
instead of building community
not networks,
I'm talking organic unity
What happens when we think of a we and not just a you or me
Where we lift our voices loud and declare we are her
e and we will not continue to live in a state of dispair.

Its in the silence  when we fail to comprehend
that nothing is what it seems
and that bitch known as pride
only leads to a fall so steep,
you may never land.
And no one will hear you scream.

Love & Light,

C. Joi Sanchez
www.jsanschez.wordpress com