Perceptions Don't Make You - Michael Rivera

I wrote this poem because people need to understand something: acting like a gangsta isn't cool and you have no idea what it mean. I have seen an met people who lived and have lived like an OG, and they wish they could done it different. See, gangs where i come from are about keeping each other safe and have a sense of belonging. Brotherhood don't mean shit compared to that. So please read this all you people who think that bein' hood is how you dress:

Scars and Perceptions

By: Michael Rivera

Scars are hard memories of the past,

some will fade and some will last.

Perceptions can be manipulated,

like a trench coat of fabrications, deceivingly replicated.

I see you posing for your peeps every day,

and for a long time I ignored you, like I had nothing to say.

But here you are now in my face, fakin’ tough,

So hear my words now, cuz I’ve become livid and had enough.

From time to time, it seems to me,

that you, my friend, are trying to be.

Something that you’re not; really just imitatin’,

all you really need is a deep soul liberatin’.

you walk around with your group, actin’ thug;

Yo! It’s not just about the clothes nor the mean mug.

You walk a strut cuz you act so cool, so fly,

Because, today, you're not worryin’ if you gonna die.

See, it's because your reality is simple,

If you went to the hood they'd pop you like a pimple

so don't look from your green pastures thinking you got it hard

Cuz the concrete jungle cuts! with loose glass shards.

Watch ya colors… Watch ya street…

Pick ‘em wrong and bangas let you bleed to death after they beat,

You down… down… down… The light slips away as you hit the ground,

Where the intonations of ya tears and fears are murmured sounds.

So now ya body’s bruised and battered,

Ya $100 kick and Tee is tumultuously all tittered and tattered.

Your fantasy of bein' an OG is in pieces as they shatter,

When God asks you, "Child, was it worth it? Did the facade really matter?"

Cuz you never seen the click-click! pop-pop!

people terrified from the sound, of a 9.milmeter.Glock.

Folks lock they doors and hide under they beds

hoping that no one is hurt and praying soon it’ll end.

So just be good with what you got,

Cuz gangstaz are top dawg until they get caught..

Take heed to these rhymes and regard the wisdom,

Of why you shouldn't praise a life of masochism.

Perceptions are gilded overcoats of how you wanna to be seen;

Scars are given and received, some worth bragging and others emotionally obscene.

Perceptions don't make you, who you are,

It's living life that marks us with scars.