Solar Eclipse - Baba Brinkman

Thunderous beats shake the ground underneath

Hundreds of feet that jump and leap and thump drunkenly

Beneath the trunks of people who’ve all come to see

Someone unbelievable, with a tongue to speak

With two lungs to breathe and a mind composed

To rhyme blindfolded on high vinyl ropes

And drive winding roads disinclined to doze

I won’t let my eyes close ‘til it’s my time to go

As I find the signposts to keep me oriented

To keep me soaring into the morning with no resentment

To give me more incentive to get my stories printed

Ignoring poor intentions until this party’s ended

I’m sorry if you’re offended;

just count to ten

And then bounce around when the record sound spins

I’m out to move mountains with a fountain pen

And then step down proudly in the crowd and grin

I’ve been around the bend, and I’m trying to make it back

To the only place I have where I’m still safe at last

As I trace my path through this race of rats

All I taste is ashtrays, waste and trash

Every paycheque cashed represents my survival

I go from wet to dry as I flow;

I’m inter-tidal

My style has been stifled by my most intense rival

Who resides in my throat and prevents my arrival

At the end of this wide road, this Möbius strip

It’s got me frozen stiff, lonely and sick

Until the moment I lift this microphone to my lips

Then every poem is a glimpse of a solar eclipse

As cold as the polar tips before greenhouse gases

I bring out raps at extremely loud bashes

‘Cause I’ve seen how fast people stream out of classes

Where senile bastards read from out the classics

My dreams outlast it;

I stay in position

But my name is a prison and my goals remain distant

I’m unable to make decisions between fame and wisdom

So my aim is missin' and I just blame the system

I bitch and complain, fixin' to quit payin' my dues

It’s a game I choose to play, and it’s okay if I lose

Say if I do, take two, another day in my shoes

Makin' moves, breakin' through;

I’m not afraid if I bruise

I create flavours and moods with wide brush strokes

And use subtle notes to describe crushed hopes

When knives cut throats, lives blood soaked

Eyes shut closed, I just float by such gross

Types of close-up descriptive images

And flip minute to minute ‘cause the script is limitless

Depictions of women and kids gripped in grimaces

Diminish in a mist as the fiction finishes

Pictures of innocence begin to evaporate

I’ve been too fascinated with tragic fates

To graduate, and I tend to exaggerate

In fact, let me navigate back to my happy place

Where friends congratulate and there’s pleasure and pain

Sunny weather and rain, milk and honey, leisure and strain

Where the earth forever remains but it’s never the same

It just gets better with age like the veterans claim

As I sever the chains at the end of my noose

And let energies loose to get my enemy’s goose

Go ahead, send in the troops;

just remember the truth

Everything loops back to the centre’s replenishing juice