TOPR; the giant who found his Heart

TOPR the giant lived in a deep bootblack cave in the middle of the Santa Cruz Mountains. For breakfast each day he would eat an emcee and flush down their blood, bones and phony rhymes with an ice cream carton filled to the sticky brim with cheap warm beer.

The filthy giant had no heart, but indeed had a ghastly mind filled with foul thoughts that swam in and out of his molded mind like eels in a debaucherous pride parade.

Top Ramen knew that he must find a heart to balance his wild brain and bridle his foul flesh.

One day, while Topr was swimming in the river, face-fishing for his lunch, a golden catfish appeared to him. Topr the giant smiled a black toothed smile, licked the remains of his second breakfast from his beard and proceeded to grab the golden catfish by the tail.

“Please have mercy on me you strange-faced Giant! I know where you can find your heart!” screamed the fish, pleading for his life.

TOPR never cared what anyone said and he had never lent his ear to his prospective lunch, however, on this strange day the giant paused to listen, wiping the drool from his front tooth.

“Your heart is in Carolina Mr. Giant…you must travel far and wide, many miles must you roam”

“Your heart is in a field filled with exotic melons of all shapes and sizes, within one of these melons lies the golden Keliyawn seed!”

“You must find this Keliyawn seed and grow it into your heart”.

The giant wanted a heart but Carolina was many miles away. He sat by his fire thinking and chewing on a leftover fibula bone, “I must leave tomorrow to Carolina to find my heart!” declared the giant. He packed all he needed; 10 gallons of warm beer, some teriyaki emcee beef jerky, his “I Hate Amerikkka” T shirt, his radio and a few mixtapes. TOPR was off to find his heart.

After burning through two dozen D batteries he had come to the field of exotic melons. Since TOPR had eaten all the jerky on his voyage and was terribly famished, the giant began to viciously eat all the melons without regard for the rare Keliyawn seed. Luckily for our hero the golden seed fell into his pocket.

Since the foul giant had collected so much dirt and so many rocks in his pockets, the seed had found a fertile home. The beer that drained through his beard dripped upon the seed each night and within a few nights the seed blossomed into a golden heart.

Topr reached into his pocket and pulled out the heart.

“What is this?” He cried.

“I am Keliyawn, your golden heart, you must swallow all of me now TOPR and I will be part of you for the rest of your life!”

The giant swallowed the heart and smiled from the start of it’s beating, His heart was Keliyawn and they lived together from then til’ infinity.

The End.

D.A. Medina

aka R. Longfellow

A La Boom Boom (knot a poem)

When the doves sing in the willow trees

Or when they croon with

One

Another

As each day

Becomes dusk

Do you think they tweet about love?

I have my doubts…yet

Their sounds are sweet to the ear

And Lord knows you don’t have to try

To hear

A

God damn thing

That is whispered, murmured or mumbled

In your zip code

See if you can hear this…

My love for you is not a song

That for a spell

Is

Sweet,

Then in a moment,

Gone

My love does not

Spill all over you

Like a vanity fair

With compliments,

Promises and

Flower petals.

I will not write

stanza after stanza

About your eyeballs

Or the sound of your voice

I won’t become fanatical with the length of your legs

Nor will I stir up hysteria with lines

About the contour of your hips,

The delicate breath,

The end of winter

Or the last time we danced.

I will not place upon the page

That which has been said

By all the other

Monkeys

Concerning love and its many traps

I will only say this,

I see your spirit

And

It is a flawless

Diamond

The magic between you and I

Is that our spirits dwell together

And they have known one another

Forever…

D

Ramon, Pablo y El Take Away Close

Ramon, Pablo and the Take Away Close
The Nighttime took a long stroll around Ramon’s home, wearing His deep blues and banging down the block in His heavy boots soaked in the evening tide. The Fog came in Her grey gowns pulling taffy and cotton candy strokes across the skyline. The darkness lingered around the conversations and observations holding flash light batteries and buckets of new leaves ready for the turning.
Two friends stand under the moon-glow smoking a joint of Chocolate Thai.
Ramon: That man that holds up the stars must be happy tonight.

Pablo: He mmmm mu must be
R: Relax my friend it’s only a way of speaking
P: I know man, fuck
R: Pablo, my good friend, we have had the same night for the last couple of years. We drink, we fight each other for fun and we philosophize about the ins and outs of life or else we go to the Roadium drive in and watch Do the Right Thing. 
That stutter can be easily cured. After all big boy, if you ain’t comfortable around me with that fuckin’ uh-uh ummmm bullshit you ain’t never gonna get a chick to kick it with your bumbling punk ass.

P: Hey Ramonito when I want your advice I’ll p-p-pull my dick out your mouth

R: Funny…some dudes got jokes…but not you fat man.
P: Fuck that I been tryin’ to get at Monica forever and every time I get ready to spit at her I freeze up and start stuttering. You… you know?
R: What? Monica? That’s Big Grumpy’s girl!
P: I don’t give a fuck…we have a uh uh um
R: A connection?
P: Yeah man
R: (pulling hard on the joint) That is someone else’s girl, you know we don’t get down like that in the hood. Shit, (smoke bellowing from his nose and wafting under the streetlight) even if he left that bitch you would be stupid to try to get at her. That’s the rules homey; we don’t do our thing like the white folks, everybody ends up fucking everybody…we got class in our hood.
P: Yeah but she is a tender one though.
R: True, but I think it might be the fact that she is taken.
P: Huh?
R: Yeah you know muthafuckas always want what they know they can’t have. That lust has been around since forever.

Ramon continued.
R: Man has been killing man over things that do not belong to him for years bro and another man’s woman has been the blue plate special of jealousy since the beginning of time.

P: What the fuck? You never talk like that in front of the boys!
R: Like what?
P: L… L… Like that all vocab and poetry and shit.
R: I don’t think they would get it and I have been keepin this poetry and writing thing to myself for so many years and each year it gets harder to talk about it with the homies because of what they might think.
P: Fuck them bruh. How muh muh much ass have you broke down just on that Spanish Poetry?
R: I never kiss and tell Pablo…but your point is made muthafucka. However the homies are simple and rock headed. They would all die for both of us and loyalty is rare in this world. So I keep my homies ignorant to my art.
P: That sounds cool I guess.
R: Yeah man like I was saying, humans want what they can’t have. In the world of sales they call it the “take away” close. The first part and possibly the most integral part of the take away is the desire for the…uh…the uh…desired…uh desire of uh…(clearly stoned)
P: What the dude wants right?
R: Well said Pablo… They have to want it for the take away to be effective, if they don’t want it then they won’t do shit. For example a man wants to buy something, he wants a comic book, lets say, but the price is too high so he begins to negotiate.
Ramon passes the joint to Pablo 

R: So, my friend, the buyer begins to negotiate and the buyer never offers more than the asking price, well almost never, in this case let’s say the comic is $45
P: Damn! What comic is that?
R: I don’t fuckin know…it’s just an example…
P: (takes a long drink of his beer) I ain’t never heard of no comic book cost 45$
R: Just shut the fuck up and let me bless you with some of this game. So dude offers $30…and now you see Pablo the take away has begun!
P: What is?
R: The take away!!
P: So he offers 10 bucks less and the t-t-take away has begun?
R: Yeah cuzz $15 less and yes the take away has begun.
P: Wait …what?
R: (Shouting) THE TAKE AWAY CLOSE YOU DUMB SHIT!!
P: Hey man, don’t start that shit! I will f-f-fu-fu fuck you up!
R: F ff fuck! Ha! Yeah Pablo you feel good? Get em up and get tapped up!
Pablo gets up out of his chair and his beer bottle clinks against the concrete.
P: Don’t let me get ahold of you flacoso!
R: Okay okay chill P! chill…chill P lemme finish
P: Yeah…but im f-f-fuckin pissed (sits back down)
R: Ok Listen cuzz… homeboy that runs the comic book shop takes the book off the counter and puts it back in the case!
P: Why the fuck?
R: Like I said (Ramon takes a deep breath and looks up at the sky) just listen my man, I love you bruh…just hush
P: Cool ok ok
R: He TAKES the item away from the potential buyer!! Now the poor bastard wants it even more!!!
P: Got it
R: So the uh….uh (clearly stuck and shaking his head)….umm…shit!
P: Dude that wants the comic…
R: Indeed, sorry my man that Thai has got ahold of me…
P: Cool
R: So the buyer ups his offer to $40!
P: Right! ………What?
R: Now you see Pablo the hook is lodged in the mouth.
P: Hook? What the fuck hook?
Ramon stopped speaking for a spell, and, as his Uncle taught him, began to contemplate the moon.
P: What? Hey man! You ain’t stuck are you?
P: Hey man …Ramon!
P: RAMON!
Ramon shook himself free from the short-lived bliss.
R: Hey..P man OK… Do you want some if this before I sack it up?
P: What?
R: This Thai weed
P: Yeah yeah um So wh what you gonna ? umm whats up you gonna hook me up?
R: 100 a quarter?
P: Awww come on bruh…
R: This is my money my man plus I smoke you out always…
P: Too much!
R: Cool, let me go put this up while I’m still halfway normal.
Ramon disappeared for a few minutes and left Pablo alone in the eye of the moon’s flashlight.
R: Ok yeah man so dude is thinking that he ain’t never gonna get that comic book and the owner hasn’t said a word since he put the book back.
P: Right
R: So whatchu think happens?
P: Dude leaves?
R: Hell NO!! He ends up paying the $45!! Because he wants what he can’t have! Like I said the world has been chasing this lust around for thousands of years man. Just like you think you have a connection with Monica but it’s really because that’s another man’s lady…you fell me right?
P: mmmm…ok so dude really want the book but he don’t like the ticket
R: Yes sir……hey dogg I gots to go!! Fools are blessin the pager!
P: OK holmes..but real talk though let m-m-me get that Thai

R: Its 100 a q!

P: FUCK IT Ramon
R: So you want this or not crip? I got to coast!
P: Yeah f-f-fuck it here you go bruh (hands Ramon 5 20 dollar bills)
R: Cool I gotchu and I’m gonna throw love on that! You know you just proved my point right??
P: Man…I don’t know just get me that good thang we been smoking!!
Ramon: I love you cuzz…

The sky is black now and Ramon walks out into the streetlight smiling counting his money.
R: The take away close is the shit!!!
(Random street cats talking shit and drinking in the background….)
END SCENE

“I say we kill her” (musing between a jealous guy and his manhood)

by D Medina for Cold Medina the album….
(Sung to the tune of “Cry me a River” by Justin Timberlake

You’ve been my friend
Since I was ten
You only know all the ways that I’ve loved you.
I’ll be your friend
Until the end
Betcha didn’t know who she be smashing now. Whoa!!

You don’t need to say
What we did
I was there in latex I hid!
Now that bitch done left
You and me
And you can’t see
But damn I feel bad about it

She told me she loved me
But you still beat me, all alone
Now she said she feed me
If you could keep me
On the bone
We should have refused
Now I’m all bruised
From some other dime
That bitch is alive and it’s her time
To die!

I say we kill her
I say you kill her
I say you kill her
Let’s say we kill her 

You know that they some girls are better left undead
You know I’m goin kill you bitch
No matter what they said 
(Don’t act like you don’t know it)
All of this rope that I’m holding
Be wrapped around your head
(Wrapped around your head)
I could have fucked all your friends 
And you would not have known it
(You tramp!)

You don’t need to say
What we did
I was there in latex I hid!
Now that bitch done left
You and me
And you can’t see
Don’t it make you sad about it?

I say we kill her
I say you kill her
I say you kill her
Let’s say we kill her 

Ode to the first Smith…

 

I remember when

it grabbed my ear,

turned it upside down

underneath that winded loft

in the middle of a harvest moon.

There

I herded my salvation,

garnered my reason

and found my way.

 

It was my Uncle’s tap,

tap….

tap tap tap

and the Smith Corona

wrapped around the paper flesh

that wooed me.

The faint smell of ink

began it’s swing shift

in my ole’ factories

as I peeped my messy head

above the horizon

of the last

loft step.

 

Eye

watched quietly

as my uncle hunched over

that typewriter desk,

humming to himself

out of key,

scratching against the paper grain

tapping tap tap

tapping

until his world faded away.

 

 

With lash and eyeball

I was stuck

on a ladder

as the moon glow

slipped

into

the tiny

window

above

his balding plot

that held the secret

to the story,

somewhere

in the folds of his brain.

 

It was my road to Damascus,

I would no longer

kick against

my fate.

It was the day

everything changed

and the night

I have kept secret

from all the other nights.

 

The mind’s river

swelled and                          bu s te d,

too fast for thought or intervention,

spilled the smallest seed of mustard

and dog

then

licked clean the snout and rifleman.

Rugged in Persian rain

and complaints,

the fantastic tongue

that speaks loyalty and sugar coats shame,

became mine.

The wide open mouth

that curses and gives blessings,

thee spring

that gives both saltwater to drown in,

fresh water for the driest tooth,

A baptismal water

for a young believer

to be buried in

and rise up in

the garden of

rock and rose.

The voice of a nation,

the screams of a whore.

Orders of French fries,

orders to kill,

orders for peace

And apple

pan

pies.

Words that make

men

fall

in love,

words

that push men

to kill

in the name of love.

A pot of sounds

blended and spoiled in the sun,

grammar for the stars

nailed to the

door on a note.

All of these were under the spell of the tap tap tap.

 

A Language lost in the garages

of Amerikkka

left in the wind of verbatim.

That incantation of the world’s words

infected my lonely brain

and sealed my soul salvation.

The same sounds that laid inside pop songs

and hid in the old woman’s pine,

The slang of the ghettos and jailhouses,

the dialect of lawyer and judge;

became an unending

solidarity

for me and my unknown

comrades.

 

 

It was that night my uncle left

the legs

of his loft chair

lonely

… I snuck in

and began

my

tap

tap

tapping

until I found

my

freedom.

My old world began to fade away

and my secret

utopia

was

manifested.

 

D.A. Medina

My precious Loon

I shall not fight the inner loon in my decaying carcass ,

I will not sedate him nor shall I clip his wings.

I will not burn

his freak flag

or silence

his

honking

brass kettle

when its time for tea and good graces.

I shall not sit

with another shaven monkey

trying to talk it through

when the loon wants to do the Hustle

all over the moon dust

that has scattered

along the paved roads of my mind.
If I lose my loon,

if I force him to leave me

and I bend into the world,

whom will I be?

History: Race in Amerikkka Pt.2

How did the Bacon Rebellion affect social order in Virginia?

The English Elitists in Virginia had created a hierarchical of race and class structure which served the English well and furthered their economic goals. The Bacon Rebellion had the essential elements of a rebellion; a large and angry lower class who were well armed, a sense of unity amongst people from varied backgrounds and color, a common enemy and an inspired leader.

The rebels, fueled by anger and desperation, burned Jamestown to the ground and forced Governor William Berkeley to flee by ship. As a result, wealthy landowners saw that the social order would never serve them as they intended if there where white laborers intermingled amongst the blacks. After the Bacon Rebellion the planters along with the English decided to use Africans exclusively for their slave labor and denied the Africans to bear arms or the right to assemble in order to prevent subsequent insurrections.

Ultimately, The Bacon Rebellion created deeper more defined tiers in the social order in Virginia and throughout the colonies adopting a labor force based on caste.

 

 

History: Race In Amerikkka

Why did the Puritans of the 1600s view the Native Americans as “Devils”?

 

The root of the Puritan viewpoint was the fact that the Puritans came to America to practice their faith system and believed that their voyage and subsequent colonization was God’s will. It was this philosophy that led the Puritan to believe that if the Puritans are with God and His plan, anything and anyone that stood in their way must be in league with the Devil and his demonic ways. When they arrived in Massachusetts, their so called Promised Land, the Native Americans were already showing signs of loss in their population die to unseen pathogens and their lack of immunity against English disease. The Puritans erroneously viewed this as a sign from God, leaving science in the wind of ignorance. Since the ways of the Native American were different from the Puritan they were viewed as barbaric and demonic, subsequently the Native American himself became the manifestation of the Devil. The fact of the matter was that the Native American had been living in peace and prosperity for many moons. They, unlike the Puritan, believed in a synergistic view of the land, where equality between man and his environment were essential to survival and growth.

 

 

 

 

The Fairytale of Daniel and Angelina

Long ago there were two proud and mighty nations. The armies of the two lands fought bitterly for many years and much blood was spilled. One day a letter arrived from the region of Gardenia where the King of the Southern Land dwelled with his Queen and two sons. The letter was addressed to the King of the Northern Land who dwelled in Antiochola with his Queen and his two daughters. The Southern King’s letter was very grim and spoke of all the young men who have died from the Southern Land. The mothers of all the young men had cried so many tears that a small lake had formed along the border of the two lands. 

The King of the Northern Land became very troubled at the reading of the letter because the mothers in his own land had also filled a small lake with tears. The King thought wise to offer a sign of peace and sent the Southern King a letter of peace and a small white dove.

 

The letter read as follows;

 

Dear Southern King,

 

We have been adversaries for too long, much blood and many tears have spilled. Please take this dove as a sign of peace and let us dine with one another in two nights so our proud families can meet and make peace.

 

Your Friend and Comrade,

 

The King of the North

 

 

So it came to be that the royal families ate and drank together and made peace. The King’s daughter, Princess Angelina was tender and indeed a fair maiden. The King’s son, Prince Daniel was a tall and strong hunter who cared for nothing but the game he sought nightly. When Angelina was introduced to Daniel the spark of true love was struck and could not be denied. The noble Kings saw the love lights shining so brightly it lit the palace dining hall with all the strength of the sun.

 

It was decided that the two were to wed and unify the war torn kingdoms.

The night before the wedding the Prince and Princess were walking in the woods holding hands and making love to one another. As the Princess was whispering into the Prince’s ear she noticed a nightingale singing on a tree stump near the mouth of the woods.

 

The nightingale was singing such a lovely song the two lovers were enchanted and bid the nightingale to come sing to them.

At once the nightingale was changed into a night troll.

The troll rose up and grabbed the princess and turned the prince into stone.

 

The night troll took the princess back to his home and changed her into a white dove and put her in small black cage. The princess tried to scream but she could only make the sounds of a dove. As she looked around the troll’s home she realized there were more than a dozen doves, each in their own small black cage.

 

An old conjurer named Gamel was walking thru the wood on his way to the wedding when he looked upon the poor Prince Daniel frozen in his stone frame.

 

Gamel perceived the heart of the Prince still beating in his stone chest and at once with wave of his walking stick removed the curse.

 

“Thank you kind sir, I am deeply troubled however and my heart beats for my own true love who has been taken away by a foul night troll!”

 

The old conjurer was moved by the young man’s plight and decided to help him at once.

 

“I know not where the fair princess has been taken but I have these three magic stones that thou must take with thee on thy journey”

 

Gamel continued, “In thy time of need place one stone on the ground and make thy wish known and so it shall be my son. It is my heart’s intention for thou to find thy bride and make haste in wedding her and therefore uniting these mighty lands!”

 

Daniel looked up and thanked Gamel for his kindness, put his wishing stones in his pocket and began his long journey to find his Princess Angelina.

 

The Prince thought it wise to use the first stone to make him a bow and an unending quiver of arrows.

 

He placed one stone on the ground and spoke with a loud voice saying, “I wish on the wishing stone for an unbreakable bow of steel and an endless supply of arrows for my quiver that I may not go without food during my journey!”

 

At once the stone had changed into a menacing black bow and fine quiver of silver arrows. The prince gathered up the bow and arrows and began his search for the princess.

 

Prince Daniel searched and searched until 5 years had come and gone. He finally went to the mountain top to ask the Night Moon if he had seen his fair princess. “I pray thee moon thou who sees all of the night hast thou seen my Princess Angelina?”

 

“I have not seen the fair one, thou must come in the morn and ask the Sun if she has seen thy own true love” said the Moon.

 

As soon as the Sun reached the horizon Prince Daniel queried Her of the princess’s whereabouts. “Oh mighty Sun that lights the sky and all the land I pray thee hast thou seen my Princess Angelina?”

 

“I have seen the Princess the day she was captured by the night troll and your highness was made into stone, thy princess was taken to troll’s cottage at the end of the wood!”

 

Prince Daniel made haste to the cottage but was careful not to arouse the nightingale who was sleeping in his cage knowing the bird would change back into the troll and turn him to stone.

 

The prince creeped into the cottage and removed the lock from one of the dove cages and quickly locked the nightingale’s cage. Princess Angelina tweeted and sang loudly when she saw her prince. The noise woke the nightingale who was troubled to see that he was indeed locked up and could not change back into the troll.

 

Prince Daniel knew one of the doves was his fair princess but they all looked the same, finally he came to the cage that held Angelina who was now jumping about tweeting and singing. Daniel knew right away that the small white dove was his own true love.

 

Daniel placed the small dove in his coat and started out to find Gamel to aid him in his time of need.

He searched day and night and became weary from his travel. Daniel made a fire and placed the small dove on a blanket near the warm fire and went to find meat for supper.

 

Just as he was aiming his bow at a tall elk in the wood a terrifying dragon flew down from the sky and captured the Prince and took him back to her lair. At once the dragon was changed into a witch and cast a spell on the Prince turning him into her slave. All day and night the Prince slaved away for the witch, mending fences and killing game to feed the fat witch.

 

So it was that another 9 years had passed and the two lovers were lost. Angelina flew about night and day searching for her fair prince.

Prince Daniel was on his way to the well to bring water to the fat witch. As he bent over he saw himself in the clear water. Just then he remembered the two magic stones, as the spell was finally beginning to wear off. He placed one of the stones on the ground and wished for a magic sword and it was so. Daniel picked up the enchanted sword and went straight away into the witch’s house. “Thou haste cast a spell on me these many years and now thou must die you fat witch!”

 

With a swift blow he took her head off and threw it into the well.

 

“This cannot be my fate, I must find my Angelina!”

Prince Daniel had not gone far when the small white dove landed on his shoulder and began singing the song of true love. Daniel’s heart leaped in his chest. “You found me my love, I am so happy now we must make haste to find Gamel!”

 

The West Wind heard the Prince’s words and whispered into Gamel’s ear so he would make haste to the two lovers. Gamel found Prince Daniel and at once changed the dove into the Princess Angelina.

 

14 years after they first fell in love the Prince and Princess were finally married and the kingdoms were united. Princess Angelina was barren and could not make sons for the Prince. Angelina was deeply troubled for she wanted a son for her husband and an heir to the throne.

 

Prince Daniel was very sad but he remembered the magic stone. At once he summoned his Princess and they placed the stone on the ground and said these words; “Wishing stone we wish for a son of our own blood, pray thee give us a healthy son who will be handsome and wise!” All at once the stone turned into a handsome young boy and they named him Anthony. So after all their troubled days were behind them King Daniel, Queen Angelina and Prince Anthony lived all there days in peace and prosperity.

 

THE END

We are all in recovery

We are all in recovery.

Warm, naked and fed,

deep in bliss water

and heartbeats

fingers and toes free from fashion’s

snubs.

Wiggling in our amniotic masterpiece,

devoid of depression

wringing wet in true romance

and far from breakups and love’s letdowns.

Until the finest abode became stuffed with consequence

and sent us all whirling into the world,

Pushed, pulled and snatched from our sac of contentment

and

dragged out into the wind of expectation.

We are all recovering from our birthday

when we began to be a human being

stuck in skin and sex trying to work out

a wardrobe;

aging in blue, aging in pink

remembering gold

longing for silver

while our futures were handed over to

thousands of opinions

on which way to go.

We are all in recovery

from the mess on the sheets,

the panic in a woman,

the foolishness of a dog’s thrust

that

sent us all to rehab

with birth certificates

and licenses to work the day shift

while the sun lit up the world all around us.

Pushing pencils and pistols under the pillows

telling the truth and telling lies

about the first time we were really happy

with the unknown shuffle,

the barber chair,

the wedding cake

and all the reasons to be drunk

in the pit.

We are all in recovery.

D.A. Medina