Homage to Thalib Kweli- Change Gon come

homage to thalib kweli- change gon come.

on the birth of a new year

I was on my way home

drunk,

pissed to hell and not a strength in my bone.

this old man was above me

puffing too hard up the stairs

would ave fallen

but I helped him

I just gave him a hand.

so I'm thinking; what the hell

took him into my flat.

hot cocoa, warm blanket and a pillow as that.

then he told me of his ages

I stood shocked and shattered

one golden jubilee and an extra two decades

I looked straight into his eyes

I saw there wasn't no lying

he has been through it all

and

he hadn't stopped smiling

skin like coal he's been called every other name

nigger,
negro,
coloured and black
to afro,
to minority,
and then straight right back to nigger,

he's seen all his heros murdered,

from to Malcom to Martin Luther Jr

and the ones still alive he watched them villifed

he's fought back with his fists

until he learned how not to hate

took the blows into his chest in the marches

rejecting his slavery fate.

he's been through hardship and pain

both soberiety and drunken shame

buried both his wife and his half dozen kids

how can this man still be sane?

but that's what he was, all smiling, no vain

"I don let go of my anger, so there aint no mo pain"

he still looks to the future, and takes every day at a time

he knows he wont reach it, but he goes on till the shine

I gave him my bed but he refused

"nah," he said, "couch good for guest"

next morning I saw him

still smiling

eyes closed

the peace never given in life he found in eternal sleeping

he outlasted all his folks so I was alone at his grave

sad,

I wish I could have paid back what hope he gave to me

but I'm truly happy I met him

happy to ave heard his words

those words and that smile are with me still

his words

"just like the sun don set

when all is don and don

change gon come."