Mellifluous Maledictions

Though I did not get past preliminaries, I performed this piece for LTAB (Louder than a Bomb) 2015. Hope you enjoy it.


In the beginning there was...the word…

Transferred from the waters that stirred to form the seas on the third day,

For when God spoke, darkness broke, the piercing light won the fight over the formless night

Yes, on the day of creation, God saved the world from desolation and rose up the nation, uniting us under one language,

But with the bite of an apple, we built towers of Babel, and began a never ending-battle, with words

No longer “in God we trust” it’s now “all about us” as we wage world wars with our mouths, letting profanities fly out,

And now unlike before, we have become stewards of Gondor,

We refuse to give up the crown of our hearts back to the true king,

We let our ears get swarmed by a storm of music, movies, and TV

And let the Messiah get cut down by this cyclone,

Looks like Kanye West and Jay-Z did a poor job of watching the throne,

The latter leaving us a Blueprint to follow and what path we ought to walk,

Of how to look at women and structure our talk

As we are told to sip the can of pop culture,

And let the sin sizzle in our throats,

Then vomit back caustic phrases

And let those unforgivable curses become our daily source of liberation,

Why swearing and profanity is so shockingly frequent, that it is hard to have a conversation that is decent

And no matter the reasons for people's treasons each word leaves my skin beaten, the curses pierce my side like a lance

And though I take a moral stance hoping that people will snap out of this horrific trance,

I can't leave it up Chance because these problems are just too Common

Intertwining with every 2 phrases like Batman and Robin

Robbin clean words from their mouths, and scarring innocent souls, turning them into Two-Faced criminals

And as Lamar is dropping bars, the curse words shine bright like stars,

Looking notoriously big in an atmosphere of celestial beauty,

How can I strive to be a good kid in this m.A.A.D city?

It seems as the metal-detectors of our mouths don’t realize the deadly weapons that we carry,

As they let f-bombs pass through security

And while the female dogs bark and howl at our dirty mouths,

The soles of our shoes pick up dirt of the ground and our souls become dirtied by the smack of the locker room sounds

But, I’ll be a Rebel and Anomaly, and break free from the Gravity of profanity,

That despite the calamity and abnormality of reality, I will press on to a cleaner mentality,

But people tell me, to grow up

That swearing is simply a natural part of life,

That a few words here and there are alright,

That I am a lone knight, and a flickering light, counting from 0-100 as I fight these fire Drakes

But I am not doing this for my own glory,

I speak cleanly to glorify the author of my story,

And point back to the first time in Eden,

When no one was eatin’ and God wasn't leaving,

Back to the first day, before the world had stirred

Back to the beginning, when there was just... the word