I Ain’t Da Khali You Once Knew, Yo

let me tell you the truth

it’s been a while since you last saw me

i haven’t been saying much

been playing most of my moves on the low

it’s for the safety of my dreams

telling everyone your next move

is like telling the secret recipes to delicious foods

dishes your family cooked for generations

people will see it as taboo

then try to sabotage you

let me tell you the truth

i ain’t the khali you once knew

such a shy, reserved kid i was

a kid with a wild side

a side so wild not even he himself could control

once he was cut loose from the cage he was confined to

a school desk and a chair, 30x30 walls

don’t know the exact measurements, but

it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the width of a classroom

having to deal with bullying

classmates destined to make your time in school miserable with all their degrading jokes

and swift slaps to the back of the head

having to deal with humiliation

even had the faculty make fun of the way you talk and the way you made facial expressions

having to fight for my sanity

a nigga’s self-worth got snatched away from him completely

just to get handed a piece of paper with a person telling me congratulations

i’m officially cleared to become programmed for a cubicle so i can begin working a nine to five for the rest of my life

racing with rats until i die from type 2 diabetes

i saw another road to my destination

little did i know my reverence for literature became a calling to heal others

myself included

let me tell you the truth

i used to get shitted on every day because i was writing books

i started to reek of the stench

people paraded into my nostrils

look at me now, who got the last laugh now

this book shit changed my life more than i could have ever imagined

i ain’t the khali you once knew

i ain’t the khali i once was in grade school

i ain’t the khali i once was once i found out how disgusting the world became

i ain’t the khali i once was when i suffered from my first real heartbreak

i elevated myself from those treacherous experiences

i had by turning my failures into successes

the shit that i am ashamed of bringing up in a conversation

has the potential to become bestselling material

goddamn, life has a weird way of straightening itself out

doesn’t it?