THE HOOD RAT

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE HOOD RAT

.

Baby,
I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower, beyond my blade.
*
But what you ask is foreign to me.
You need something that I’m not.
You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
*
But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
it’s my essence, can’t you see?
How can you speak of loving my soul, but
not the hood rat that is me?
*
While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
it’s the essence of my being.
So forget about what all the other’s say,
here’s what it means to me:
*
I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
yet, managed to survive,
well educated and fully functional,
when I came out the other side.
I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard,
because knowledge, I found, was free.
But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned,
or the knowledge that makes me, me.
*
While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
or Miles muted in the night,
not in the context of hunger and pain,
or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
*
So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy;
a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
which has greatly enhanced their lives.
*
Thus, I wouldn't change a single thing in my life -
I’ve faced Hell and passed the test.
I have a PhD in adversity,
that's made me much more,
rather than less.
*
So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,
they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,
while I'm who they’re blowin' about.
*
So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life,
That’s what gives me my confidence.
*
The Ivy League degrees of those of means
are only paper compared to mine;
while they have a "receipt" for knowledge obtained,
my lessons are ETCHED within my mind.
*
I can teach philosophy to Aristotle
with the adversity that I’ve endured,
so any snob who tries to match my wit,
will come up short, and that’s for sure.
*
Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
through their "education" they are prone;
but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
I spend my time developing my own.
*
Never give the thoughts of ANY man
priority over our own;
You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,
that’s where Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he failed to bestow on you.
*
So being seen as a hood rat has its advantages
against racists of limited wit;
I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
*
While God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
he gave man thought and that's the key.
So any man who thinks he's superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free,
no matter what the people say,
and there’s nothing more formidable than
a knowledgeable hood rat, and
that’s what you’re looking upon today.
*
Yet, these are the things you want me to purge,
and spurn the life I’ve led,
but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I love you,
the soul of a hood rat is my edge.

*

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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THE EULIPIANS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE EULIPIANS

.

So once again I indulge my ritual. I sit here in the womb of the night, serenading the birth of a new day by contemplating, and celebrating, my youth. I think of Watts, of the Jordan Downs, the Imperial Courts, and the Pueblo Del Rio Bricks a few clicks down the tracks. I think of the 60s, of Dashikis, and the sweet sounds of Miles caressing my young consciousness as proud and beautifully Afro'ed sisters strut across the landscape of my mind - Hey, Gil, there's a morning thought.

.

.

But what I think of most, are those older brothers, the ghetto griots, who constantly sought to enlighten our minds; who introduced me to Bird, Dex, Miles, and Trane, and who laid the foundation that colored the rest of my life. They planted a seed in my soul that has continued to flourish, and now bears the fruit from many days past. These, were the Eulipians; nameless heroes, ghetto scholars, and the custodians of Black wisdom.
.

So all these many years later, this one’s for you, good brothers. I bring it full circle - from you, back to you, because I was listening, and I continue to walk in your wisdom:
.
The Eulipians
.
Some of the greatest minds I've ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lot of ghetto liquor stores. At their feet I embraced the love of knowledge,
And through their tutelage defined self-worth
In my own terms.
.

These were the "Eulipians" — writers, poets,
musicians, painters, and uncommon drunks —
those shade-tree philosophers who
contemplated the fungus between the
toes of society; Who danced with reckless abandon,
unfettered by formal inhibition
through the presumptuous
speculation of the ages; Who live in county jails, cardboard boxes, alley ways, and luxury Apartments.
Insignificant here in Great Bruteland,
but of ultimate significance in the eyes of God.
. 
While these obscure intellectuals
stood well outside the mainstream
of academy, I watched with astonished delight as
they sang, scat, scribed, and pontificated 
their wisdom and various philosophies into the
mainstream of human knowledge.
.
Their philosophy?
knowledge is free, thus,
will transcend attempts
to be contained through barriers
of caste or privilege,
leaving man's innate thirst
for knowledge free to someday.
overwhelm his lust for stupidity.

.
THEY SAID, FREE YOUR MIND, AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW.

.
The Hood Rat

*   

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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