Bent English
My speech ain’t elegantly refined,
my words don’t dress up none too properly
Simply cloth words with no aristocratic design,
just plain, unassuming ghetto vocalese
Though I’m very familiar with
the Queen’s English tutorial
I don’t engage much in heavy conversation
that’s Harvard professorial
My talk is Oxford bent,
I got a deep Detroit-Harlem accent
Me be the son of a slave,
my nappy sentences ain’t straight
Neither is my speech, I’m afraid
My English is bent, I know ...
don’t always put my vowels where dey need to go
Teach sez me grammar skills is graded low,
I speak phonetically pure Ebonics with an Afro glow
But when it comes to surviving the Establishment game,
I’m da best you better know
Sometimes I speak me English right,
and sometimes I don’t
Still, I know how to ghetto walk at night,
us black owls don’t easily fright
We say, who say dat when I say dat
We say, who is dat talking like a rat,
creeping like a cat
We don’t like front runners
who don’t got our back
You understand what I’m saying,
though my English be bent
I don’t have fancy letters like some of y’all,
but me message always get sent
Now you received this truth water
straight from the Beth-el well,
so drink it all down,
it’s crystal clear speaking as a ringing church bell
And if my speech sound liberty cracked,
that’s when ya know something’s out of whack
Bent ain’t always bad,
‘specially when ya ducking from a bullet attack
Verbal or otherwise ...
my ghetto Bentley got a high market price
Me keep da conversation clean on da inside,
ebony gleaming outward on the black hand side ...
Leaning bent in da back diamond life
is a beautiful soul scenic ride
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2017
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