Orange is the Color of Fall
By Jerit Aaron
You can miss me with pumpkin spice
All things pumpkin flavored
But orange is the color of fall
And that’s all I wait for
You can miss me with wet trash
Mud footprints on the ground
But orange is the color of fall
Before the leaves turn brown
You can miss me with Halloween
Ghouls and ghost not my vibe
But orange is the color of fall
A vision that won’t die
You can miss me with the gloom
And melancholy blues
But orange is the color of fall
It makes the leaves look cool
You can miss me with the turkeys
And turtle neck sweaters
But orange is the color of fall
Right before the leaves crumble
You can have the season Autumn
Winter, spring, and summer
But orange is the color of fall
And we’re getting older.
The Strangest Thing I Ate
By Jerit Aaron
Its not because of the taste
Nor the smell or texture
Bout the strangest thing I ate
But it was fate on my plate
Witnessed in front of my face
A women reporter from Al-Jazeera
Without a tear on her face
A soul that must be numb
To harm done by my country
Explains the conditions she faced
As I stuffed my face
With chips and peanut butter sandwiches
Crumbs in my beard and on my lips
Lord is my soul numb?
How can I eat watching this?
She describes trying to survive
Evacuation and starvation
Struggles before the UN comes with bread
She says with ill-fated lips
She kisses her children and husband before work
Lord am I a jerk?
To not part with my food
My conditions in prison
Is still not as bad or sad
I felt the strangest mood
What latitude the Lord gives
To fools and little kids…
Not my country or Zionist
That get it how they live
And in disgust I ate my food
Afterwards a questionable remorse
Because its already ran its course
The apathy inside my veins
I wish I could have not ate
Or at least waited to finish my food
I wish I could have given it to her
Spur of moment, and her kids,
All the kids of Palestine, fed 5,000
With 5 loafs of bread and two fish
A strange thing I digest
That in order to do this
I would have to be in a war zone
Or she and her family in prison
I was thankful for this strange food
That in this place I still find grace
And gratitude, for those I have more than
I can at least have a positive attitude
Hold you in my prayers
And never forget bout you
The strangest thing I ate
Was in the wake of human suffering
CHILDREN OF THE SUN
By Jerit Aaron
Burning from pure light within
We are children of the sun
Melanin is not a sin
It complements the sun
Wise men from the east
Who knew the stars
Traveled far in hot climates
We are children of the sun
Tribes will war, ancestors call out
We are children of the sun
Africa mother to all
Birthed all walking on earth
Trans-Atlantic, somehow, someway
Hot as hell, we survived the fields
We are children of the sun
Prayers to the One who made the sun
Coolness from spirituals, simmer down,
Quiet down, my unruly soul
Young and dark, a child of the sun
The sun never bothered me much
Sunup to sun down I balled I am a child of the sun
We hooped, we balled, slap boxed,
Played 3 flies up, tag,
Race, race, and race until it wasn’t fun
Because we are children of the sun.
PARKING LOT LOITERER
By Jerit Aaron
What will happen when a dream is deferred
Does it shrivel up and die or still fester
For the one that’s done looking beyond the curb
Having no exit plan like those he serves
No grace for the parking lot loiterer
What will happen when a dream is deferred
It won’t flourish in the hood’s toxic soil
Binges on lows his days losing number
Tortured soul his favorite word is never
All the other dreams he has to spoil
What will happen when a dream is deferred
When its highest honor is to never tell
Even abuse of runaways he’ll cover
Plays his part as parking lot loiterer
He knows in these streets everything’s for sell
One foot planted the other holds up the sto’
The one foot planted has dug in its roots
Deep down he knows he can never let go
Of his pipe dreams and his look out block code
Thus, 5 days a week he is on his post.
STREET LIGHTS ON
By Jerit Aaron
Haunting flicker’n; “street lights on!”
Stars, beautiful twilight
Poorly maintenanced apartments
Starts to transform at night
Across the way houses protected
With cars parked on the lawns
Bars on windows; children playing
Moms say “time to come home”.
Rumi’s Advice
By Jerit Aaron
Yesterdays was yesterday’s gone
Another week that was
I fought with everything I had
It’s as a warrior does
I thought that I could change the world
With all my wit I’d lose
Like all else that thought this way
Our ego’s were left bruised
I fought and fought with all devils
Another’n another
Lost track of who is right or wrong
Each one was my brother
A fight I knew I could not win
Today I became wise
Fighting in the greatest struggle
Choosing to change myself.
If Poems Could Speak
By Jerit Aaron
Don’t sleep on me, I am a song
New school don’t feel my flow
A little slow, it be like that
When they hear I’m a poem
Poems be like, you gone leave me out?
The original verse
Poems about warriors and soldiers
Right in your Bible verse
Poems done shed blood and have bled
Been active since day one
Like the infant’s heart fighting to beat
Their first breath, a poem
Don’t sleep on me; I am your theme
In the roots of your song
In your rhyme scheme of highs and lows
You ain’t know, I’m a poem?
Poems be like; you gone sell me out?
For freak dancing strangers
When a poem strips the soul bare
In view from all angles
Poems grapple with life and death
With the realest lyrics
They just not gone give you the pain
They tell how to heal it
Don’t sleep on me; I am too deep
Your very life; a poem
That you have yet to speak or hear
Please do, before its gone.
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