Stone Soup Servings is a regular series for Oddball Magazine that features upcoming performers at Stone Soup Poetry, the long-running spoken word venue in the Boston area that has recently partnered with Oddball Magazine. Stone Soup Poetry meets from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m.

On April 14, we are excited to welcome artist and community activist LightSpeed Arafat to his first Stone Soup feature. Check out his corporation LightSpeed Entertainment, Inc., and check out a sample of his work below before coming to this Monday’s event as hosted by Toni Bee.

 

Rising From Fire

Written November 29, 2012 at 7:43pm
I wasnt trying to be negative, I was trying to be positive result oriented
I was only trying to reveal their incentives to burn your senses
I was reporting fires to protect you from singes
I was pointing out crap with the hope you would cleanse it

I was stating the issues to inspire solutions
But fixation on the problems is its own pollution
And anger was never an institution
Stable enough to spark revolution now I…

See……
Something’s wrong when a painter wants happy displays
But cant paint a picture without shades of grays
Somethings wrong when a writer tries writing’s that praise
And the result is a pen laying on a blank page
But when asked about issues has bars for days
And can read every issue its shoe size and age
Im not sure at what point my mind became a maze
But I swear I am lost in the part that holds rage

Though this country sells jail
Ive avoided a Jail sell
But who needs a jail cell
When you have a jail self
Pinned to negativity
I have managed to turn my pen into a penitentiary
My notepad into a padlock
The lines on my page into the bars of my cage
And now I have literally sentenced myself to jail
And now all I do is literally spit bars

But November 29 I am writing my bail
Because happiness deferred is bound to go stale
A face that cant smile is a boat that cant sail
And a heart that cant love is a letter un-mailed

Smiling is a mission I dare not fail
And my love is an item that is not for sale
Though the block is still hot for some girls and some males
I can point out fires without burning my nails

It’s okay for young kids to be scared of nightmares
But it’s not okay for grown folk to be scared to dream
I cant be so focused on putting out fires
I forget my focus was building my team

Though some will get scorched in the end they will learn
And in the end they will win so as far as im concerned
We don’t need no water let this muthafucka burn
Im greater than this melting pot so let this muthafucka churn

Give me fire dirt and mud ill give you bricks in return
& build schools for the kids and build a future for my sperm
Fire makes steam rise, so let esteem rise firm
let the heat reach a point that it kills off germs
let it rain on our earth till it exposes all the worms
And reaches our roots so that our fruits have their turn

The tables will turn……………
Too long I addressed issues now im changing my address
To a state of mind you cant find with GPS
Now im brushing off stress, painting pictures of success
On the side of brick buildings, for the kids that’s on the steps