TAXI.com

Word on the StreetThe clerk took my money and trembled as I left his storeWord was even street preachers wouldn’t go down there no moreExactly a week before there’d been a shooting down the blockWoman screamin’ from a 4th floor window and her son on the hard sidewalkThough rumors of payback had reached the cops on the beatEven they feared the word on the streetI walked past gang graffiti where that boy had died too youngThe ambulance took 20 minutes after someone dialed 911Someone needed to get the message and my fists were clenchedcos my bitter heart was beggin’ for the sweet taste of revengeA familiar shadow seemed to shimmer by me in the summer heatAs I thought of the word on the streetCos sometimes a word is as strong as a deedAnd no one should fear the word on the streetThe sun set slow as I walked to the graveyard and knelt by a crossI prayed what I did would somehow help me lose my sense of lossBack on the block everyone knew to get insideA bandana flashed his colors as the first soldier came to fightAs the moon rose over the ghetto it shone a light by his feetAnd he thought of the word on the streetCos sometimes a word is as strong as a deedAnd no one should fear the word on the streetOne by one they came and left that nightCos I’d planted a simple seedI spray-painted ”Peace” where my brother diedAnd that was the word on the street©2007 Robert George