Beautiful

This is from Jaiya John's book entitled Beautiful

I am your child
I am a jazz note
play me

I am silence
make music with me

this time I'll be the saxophone reed
purse your lips
kiss me so I soften and bend
to your breath

kiss me

this time I'll be the fingers
you be the keys
when I stroke your notes
surrender to me  to me

our home is an orchestra pit
an opra house
the walls are soaked with your song
now let's play mine too

I want to hear me when I wake
in the morning
I want the sun to rise and warm me
I want the wind to race through
the house and splash over me
I want you to greet me with a
freestyle harmony
you play the base line
me I'll do the treble cleft

make my breakfast eggs taste
like halleujah in my mouth
seasoned with your sweetness
from the spicy Cajun South

I'll put on my clothes for school
but I'll still be cold because
my nightmares keep leaving a chill

so drape me in melody:
the stories from your child days
wrap me in your chorus line:
blended passions that fill your heart

and here's a start
praise me

even as you hold me
scold me mold me lift me
pray for me lead me show me...
praise me

cause when I     leave your house
our house          I hear music   strange fruit
I hear songs      sung wrong
I hear flat notes  sharp tones
broken melodies  hate stained piano keys
I hear people      in the street
at school and     on TV
singing at me     not to me     with me
but at me          through me

they blue me     scare me
doubt me         shoo me      they take me
break me         betray me    scorn me
pity me            but never    see me

they string me   not musically
but a tree         where they noose me
then kick out    the base beneath my feet
they loose me   I swing loosely

I like drawing and sports and movies
they paint me bland and flawed
and...see...I groove ease-y
I groove easy

you can plow my field
hoe my soil
make valley where I toil
hurt me with a single raindrop
cause my ground is baked hard and cracked

I'm not broken
not a foster plaything token
my fate just got to smokin'
now I'm hard but hardly broken

some days I catch God's glory rays
feel like slammin' down crawfish etouffees

other times I'm suckin'
limes and feeling sour
cause grown folks toss me like a hand grenade
scared of me but they got all the power

some days I'm grinnin' like Satchmo
or scowling like Miles

maybe I'm bluesy like Louisi-ana in the rain
or just hanging in the mist
with brother John Coltrane

what I'm sayin' is
I'm not the spot    I'm not the stain
I'm the tune that takes you
dances in your brain

find my pain my joy my purpose my song
sing me hold me pray me

scold me make bold me hear me say me
Luther sang it
make this house a home
no more wander no more roam

you love me? good    now see me
you can't be me but believe me
I need you to release me so I can be me

so sing me song me right me
cause this world done wrong me

tell me why you think I am the Beauty
cause this life tells me I'm the Beast

leave love letters in my bed
scatter them like rose petals through the house
I'll find them read them
come to love myself

I am your child
I am a jazz note

Play me.



Be blessed