Ikniuh

My baby brother,
It seems I saw you just yesterday,
Though I know that weeks have transpired
Since I was last in your company,
Not much going on here,
Except our struggles to bring you and yours home,
How I wish this stupid war would end,
And we can spend time like before,
But I know it would not be the same,
The military has taken that which cannot be restored,
And though I love you all the same,
You are a different man,

Has it been so long since our youth?
When you’d sometimes ride shotgun with your big brother,
And I’d lace your mind with game given by my big homies,
The ins and outs of the underworld I know too well,
And have since let be,
How strange and ironic these times we live,
I – the advocate for a peace we’ve never known,
You, representing the fight in us all,
The tragedies we lived in early life,
Have not released us from their grasps,
Perhaps some day,
We can let it go,

My big brother,
Sitting in a prison cell,
Built by the ones who take,
Punishment for the life you tried to take,
It seems I saw you just last week,
Though years have passed since I saw you last,
I can’t recall when you were truly free,
In and out of the joint,
And I see your changes after every stint,
Your phases with the moon,
Through your alterations,
You remain the same at heart,

It has been too long,
Since the tumultuous years of youth,
And the secrets we never speak of,
Silenced through our conversations,
Though they loom waiting in the quiet of the shadows,
The state has moved you so many times,
I don’t know where you are,
Or where you will be,
But I have you always in my heart,
Few days pass where you do not enter the corners of my mind,
And I think whimsically,
On days scarce we had times good,





My big homie,
My brother in arms,
Partner in crime and co-conspirator,
Or perhaps I was yours,
The chilly secrets of surviving the streets,
The lesson most valuable,
Trust nobody,
The ins and outs of the dope game,
You have taught me well,
Yet, still I have my brothers,
Upon whom I may lean for a place to lay my head,
And food to keep sustained,


It has been nearly a decade,
Since I saw you last,
And I reminisce so thoughtfully,
On the bread broken,
When pennies we had none,
With adventures we had plenty
Living for the day,
Taking from them and making ours,
Savage beasts abreast we strolled,
The reasons for our falling out remain unclear,
You were my brother when removed I was from mine,
And you will be my brother always,

There is nothing in this world,
That I would not do,
If my brothers so much as asked,
For I am nothing without them,
And would go nowhere if none I had beside me,
I have many brothers not my sibling,
It matters not a womb we shared,
For my brothers will have my back when right,
Will never fear rebuke my wrong,
Food will share when little they have,
Are always real when in company,
And provide many stories to share in harsh times..