Dear Kobe

 Dear Kobe

I hope where you’re at it’s more peaceful now 

And you and Gianna are playing two on two

With Prince and Trayvon

You can probably guess that when you left
it got just a little crazy

Jordan and Shaq cried big ol baby tears 

and everybody including me posted dope ass memes 

And if we have our way 

your silhouette will become the NBA’s new logo 

Dear Kobe

You left behind some beautiful things

Your daughters, your highlights and that hashtag girl dad 

But as you can guess, you also left a mess behind

Trump is still president and he's bound to get reelected

Patriarchy is still alive although it might have to start apologizing

Niggas still wear their Bill Cosby cape
and still downloading r Kelly tapes 

And by tape, I mean the child porn not 12 play

I know you saw that Lizzo thing 

And that it made you shake your head

But if empowerment means 

Cutting out your skirt's ass cheeks

Then patriarchy sho aint dead

Is it just me 

or is there just a bit of misogynistic irony

That “real ass bitch, give a fuck about a nigga”

Was actually written by a nigga?

Dear Kobe

I loved seeing Gianna bring you out of retirement 

My own daughter doesn't talk to me anymore

She's mad over bullshit that'll take her years to get over 

She's embarrassed more than she realizes 

Over not meeting the unreasonable Expectations 

that I have set for her stupidly

So she blocked me on all the social media platforms 

Not realizing that I can still see her

Scantily clad and smoking major weed

But I been a girl dad so I keep tabs

She knows I named her Umarah,
after a Muslim woman warrior

But she doesn’t know...

When I brought her home,

I bought this little pink mirror 

That I would place in front of her face

Just to make sure she was breathing

So that SIDS would never visit her crib

She doesn’t know

I would stay up at night until dawn broke

Until it became the habit that made me the night owl I am today

She doesn't know that her tenacity and strong will are every bit of me

So on every silent day that passes 

I stay proud that her stubborn ass carries my DNA

Dear Kobe

While you’re up there, holler at my hero Harriet

Tell her we apologize for that unremarkable movie

Ask her for her patience, we really only just got free

I mean, we did put a brother up in Pennsylvania  Ave

But we still gang ganging over streets 

We’re only paying rent to live on

Tell her don’t yet throw us in the trash

We’re starting to run a Lil bit

With the baton she passed us

But tell her to keep her pistol in her knapsack

And her knife in her boot

There’s definitely some coons and sambos she’s

Gonna hafta shoot 

In the meantime there’s hope: we’re out here more like Russell Wilson

And less like Russell Simmons

Dear Kobe

Joni Mitchell didn’t lie

Even the value of those ugly adidas space boots has gone sky hi

And everybody wants to talk about the rape case that died before you did

I wish these commentators grilled you before your death

Instead of asking for your autograph before you left,

I’m glad you had that sit down with the Big Diesel

I hope that you had plans to one day talk about that night down in Eagle

It’s that dark tar pit we been running from for 500 years

It’s becoming time we stop, sit, and put our hand in it 

Up to our elbows to grab and grasp all that pain, trauma and heartache

And lay it out in the sun,

To let it dry up like the raisins Langston wrote about

We have got to be able to reconcile with our Vanessas and our Giannas 

Make sure our malias and Sasha’s don’t turn into Thotianas

How we could have been fuck bois and then fathers with lil mambas?

How do you live a life where you leave a woman skeetfaced and bleeding

To go home to your perfect wife?

The only second thought for a thot being how much her silence can be bought for

Dear Kobe:

Not that you’re misogyny’s poster boy

That problem’s been around since Adam

Some say #metoo started with Mary

And that Josesph must’ve known how a Black slave in the South felt

When his wife gave birth to a light skinned baby

You'da been better off taking your anger out on Shaq

Insteada chokin a Lil white girl from the back

But then again

We ain’t quite ready to talk that freely about Mandingos revenge

Dear Kobe:

My stepdaughter Jannah doesn’t talk to me either

She mad cuz I was a mean parent and I called out her molester

When everyone wants to keep that skeleton in a closet

Despite the fact that it reaches out to grab her by the throat in her nightmares

But I know she is really mad at her mama for not protecting her

Mad at her daddy for abandoning her

Mad her the other stepdad for stealing her trust with is blunted fingers

But it’s okay-

She’s the dope mother artist and poet

I molded her to be 

As if she were my own seed

And so on silent days that scream over her apprehension

Her art sings me a song of appreciation

Dear Kobe:

If you see my other lovely stepdaughter Shwayyah

Give her a kiss and tell her I pray every day for her

Before she left we she called me Daddy

And those words fill all the silence I could ever face

Dear Kobe:

In the end even tho I’ma always be team Jordan

I can’t help admire the ferocity and audacity

That fueled you to 5 rings

Like u I learned to walk thru fire 

And stand up strong on the end a bonafide champion,

Thank u for the oohs and ahs

Thank u for those ugly shoes

Thank u for that precocious 18 year old pro

Thank u for not flinching at Matt Barnes

Thank u for copying Jordan

That was a precious lesson that we can and should clone and reproduce Black excellence

Dear Kobe:

I got this kid on the way who is my redemption personified

A note that God wrote with His sonogram signature at the bottom

If it’s a girl I’ma name her after my mama

But in yours and Giannas honor I’ma nickname her “lil mamba”

My child will benefit from all my mistakes and good decisions I made

I’ll show them your highlights 

So they can learn to read human poetry

I’ll teach to hoop and yell out your name after every swish

So know that of all the things that we say you are 

You left this world the best thing any man can be

With Giannaa clutched in your arms

You left this world as “Daddy"...