In the last four years I have grown

from four walls
into a home,
from a rocking chair into a throne,

from a phrase into a poem,

learned how to spit from the pit

of my jawbones,

I ain’t got much taller but growth,
I have damn sure shown.

In the last four years
of my life, I learned how to write. Learned how to shed my light despite
the darkness of the night.

Learned
how to grip my pen
like a prison bar and set myself free like I got Mandela inside of me
but I also learned that there’s devils inside of me
and there’s a heaven I gotta see.

I gotta keep pushin’
even when it seems like that heaven is out of reach.

I learned
how to believe
in me
and the things that I can’t see.

I learned
how to love,
learned how to really really love learned how to hate a little less.

Learned
how to depend on cigarettes
more than my own father
and I learned that a brother
ain’t gotta come from the same mother

and I learned that a man ain’t defined by no age or no number.

learned how to sweat when I pray
and bleed when I write
learned how to rip the seams off a mic
and lose my voice trying to gain my freedom

even learned how to sing even though I can’t sing

learned how to move my soul and do my dance
I grew my hair and learned how to go super saiyan

learned that a man can still smile like a kid learned the only cage I’m in is made of my ribs learned to appreciate the days when
I was troublesome

learned the difference between writing a poem and becoming one

’cause I’ve grown from a rapper to a poet to an artist

grown into an archer aiming arrows at my target grown my own food and been living off my harvest,

but the seasons are changing,
so my poems are too,
but I’m liking the direction.
I think I’m starting to rhyme more because I want my life to start connecting.

See, I done learned how to learn. Now I’m learning how to teach ’cause I learned how to practice whatever I preach.

I grew from a grain into a beach.
I knew for the game I’m playin’ for keeps.

So whatever I say, I say what I mean. So whenever I speak, I’m able to reach

a place that bleeds a place that burns

and a place that knows, I got a lot more to learn.