Old Man Billy Poem by Quame Boatmann

Old man Billy
The evil men do, lives with them
And a sown maize seed never shoots chili
A justice law of nature

You had bazillion gray hairs in your home
When you were young
Gray hairs full of compassion
Whose voices raise concrete walls,
around the young
Yet you shut your ear lobes
Now one of them, you’ve become
Here you are in agonizing fate
For this is the future you built

I heard from the judging lips
Of your own blood brother
That you suck smoke and spit on job
You discovered silver and gold
Yet you dug no whole
You bartered them all
For your insatiable thirst for smoke

I cannot give you comfort
For you made no better effort