Title: It Can Be Better

By: William Bradley

Date: Sometime in 2002

My Spoken Word must be heard.

I came last week for the first time,

Felt the vibe that my body needed at least one more time,

Fellas ain’t tripping, and the girls looking cute,

Sitting right next to the dude of a diff race,

I can get to learn to love this place.

A place where non commercialized and unedited  thoughts run free.

And if I begin to stutter or mumble as I begin to recite my piece,

Ya'll won’t even trip on me,

But rather give me the courage to stand tall till I am done,

That’s why I think coming here is so much fun.

I have been writing for years in my black and white composition book

But always too scared to be heard

Self conscious about the way my words would be looked at.

They could not see past my physical form,

All they could see were my 6 2 315lb frame

With baggy clothes and braided hair, not knowing that deep inside,

I’m a deep sexual/intellectual cat that has so much to say.

But just not enough small stages like this one to be heard.

With the light shinning down on me, all eyes on me, my body beings to transform,

My heart begins to race,

The sweat begins to run off my brow,

My voice becomes more  powerful,

People look at me like I have all the answers,

Oh no,

I just may be a lil more well equipped to turn my thoughts into words.

I don’t what this to sound like a freestyle battle,

But in actuality it is,

See because in this battle I win and lose.

I’m fighting myself,

let me be the first to tell you, that’s not the right path to take.

See a few years back my life was headed on the downward slope,

I got drunk one day and fell asleep at the wheel,

Crashed into a black gate, then at the age of 18 I never though that would be my fate.

But I came out alive, with only a scratch on me,

GOD telling me to wake up, you need to make a change.

See God sees something in me that is better than that,

Now I’m not here to preach you on what is right or what is wrong,

Because we all have to live life as we want it.

See me telling you what happened to me, may shock you,

But I hope that you see there is a true message behind it,

So next time when you are about to fuck that girl with no rubber,

Shoot that nigga that got ya air force ones dirty,

Just make sure that you can live with that.

See we all have the power to choose that is what makes up great,

But what people fail to see is that life is a two fold process,

There is the good fold, but in contrast there is the bad fold.

So be aware on which side you choose,

What is good today may not be good for tomorrow.

Commentary: I started to go to this poetry spot in LA (that I am just so thankful for now) On the first night I went, I was so inspired that when I came home I  wrote two pieces, this was the first one I suggest if you live in the LA area and you are into spoken word, it is a must that you go