I grew up in a city where people where poor 

The streets were filled with swindlers and whores

Crooks and crackheads lined the streets

Homeless people looking for somewhere to sleep

There was no such thing as an easy life

If you wanted to survive you had to fight

Weeks without electricity 

Months without plumbing

Mothers robing Peter to pay Paul

As if it was funny

Not being able to pay rent 

Getting evicted 

Leaving children to move from home to home

Boarding houses and park benches

Sleeping under porches all alone

Borrowing money just to eat

Suffering every week

Stealing food just so we could have a feast

Brothers selling dope

Just to get on their feet

Sleeping in abandoned homes

Tarnished hardwood floors

Splinters tearing at my skin

Causing me to bleed

No soft pillows

NO blanket to keep warm

No shoes on my feet

Socks Damn near torn

Clothes on my back from 2 weeks ago

I know I have to survive

Even with tears in my eyes

The projects aren’t a place to be

It’s a place where mothers suffer

Just to take care if their own

Where children are torn

Cause their father’s are gone

If you are not strong

The projects will swallow you whole

Little do you know…

Only half the population really have somewhere to go

See –

During the day we play rich

Yet-

We’re poor in the night

PRAYING to God that he make it right

Asking him why he gave us this life

There’s tears in my eyes

Nothing in my belly

I will never tell anyone though

Because –

They won’t understand me…