POETRY: Revelation by Reggie Drake

Ever since I was a boy,
I dreamed of those lights.
Those bright suffocating lights
That infected the stage with its insufferable aura.
Insuring that every eyeball in the room was steadily glued
To that human statue...
Who would begin to speak.
Ravaging the crowd with bars upon bars  of
Creative and relatable context
That sent them spiraling into a whirlpool of ecstacy,
I remember watching,
With awe-inspiring eyes as a single man
Was able to elevate the volume of the venue several octanes
To eye drum busting levels,
And the heat,
The energy,
The intensity
Was tangible.
The musical vibrations carried the essence and emotion of the performer
Into the awaiting multitude...
And i envied his idolization...
Even if his rhymes were elementary.
And I went farther from home,
Later the world of wordplay became familiar
As i hit the cypher circuits,
I loved it when the DJ went "erka, erka, erk"
All over the old vinyl,
While the crowd goes wild in the background.
I would slowly take the mic from his hand and proceeded to
Wreck shxt so hard the microphone would need a paint job,
My mouth articulating the idiom over a sample of Pete Rock & CL Smooth
That they so conspicuously vibe to,
Hip Hop fanatics would scream
"Damn did you just see that?"
"Did you just see that??"
Exploding euphorically
The sound was eclectic
The energy was palpable
The made me feel like a god,
Legendary,
Continuously gassing me up hoping I wouldn't drop to E
I was on the precipice of greatness.
Willing to do whatever it took for the sake of a lavish lifestyle ...\
Even though i knew,
I was in the land where they barely understand what I speak
But they nod to my flow and the rhythm of the beat
They would see how many times I could rhyme in one sentence
But little did they know that this was just the beginning
I got big,
Blew up like Hiroshima,
Transforming a daydream fantasy into a reality,
I was the performer in my youth,
Galvanizing thousands with lyrical incompetency,
I let my hooks do the talkin
And my misogyny do the walkin
I learned to appeal to the mainstream
Lining my pockets off of societies mental deprivation
Dumbin down to my audience to double my dollars  
This isnt what I wanted
But its everything that I asked for.
I was so far from home that it would take me years
Just to journey back halfway.
They say home is where the heart is
But I left my heart in the rhythm and poetry
I used to recite so eloquently and intellectually,
It made you think on a deeper plane
Using complex metaphors and vivid diction
To take your mind places you never thought of reaching before,
It was that allure
That captivated and entrapped like aphrodisia
It was the perplexing paragraphs that could be deciphered two ways,
It was the years it took to perfect an immaculate craft
The thoughts and feelings I kept deep inside
When my mouth had no way with words
And my tongue refused to speak,
When poetry found me ,
A lost child desperately searching for some guidance,
I was naked before poetry clothed me with understanding
While simultaneously stripping me of my trepidation .
I realized I gave up too much
For too little...
And it changed me.
For the worse.
And the only way to make it better,
Is for you to come home.
Because poetry,
There aint no sunshine when your gone,
Just darkness everyday
Anytime you go away.
And I say all that to say,
That I was foolish for refusing you,
When you called to me,
At the pinnacle of my ignorance...
I gained the world only to lose my soul,
I now know that wisdom will always be better
Than silver and gold.