rehearsals

i always practice ‘fore i go outside
here where it safe and where i can hide
chew’n everything over ‘fore anything’s said
living in a play made here in my head

the words i choose when i’m in here
say what i mean with little fear
“they gone say that i gone say this
and this is what i will insist”

hunching my shoulders snapping my heels
this shakin’ inside it tells what i feel
but i know for sho when i gets out there
gone carry on then like’i really don’t care

by the time noon come i be say’n i won
they all know i’m lying soon as it’s done
but i keep go’n on in this drunken way
lean’n on wish’n out here every day

what lil’l i do gets stretched outa size
i tell stories over like every word’s wise
then i walk away slowly wit’a dip’in’my stroll
another day do’n nut’n but here growing old

seems i’m always talkin’ ‘bout what i gone do
all the time sit’n here still too scared to
nurse’n dreams under trees askin silver bull cans
how long i gone be acting ‘fore i turns into a man

Copyright © 1993 Asili Ya Nadhiri