The Roots f/ Amiri Baraka<br />
Phrenology<br />
Something in the Way of Things (In Town)<br />
<br />
In town x3<br />
<br />
Something in the way of things<br />
Something that will quit and won't start<br />
Something you know but can't stand<br />
Can't know get along with<br />
Like death<br />
Riding on top of the car peering through the windshield for his cue<br />
Something entirely fictitious and true<br />
That creeps across your path hallowing your evil ways<br />
Like they were yourself passing yourself not smiling<br />
The dead guy you saw me talking to is your boss<br />
I tried to put a spell on him but his spirit is illiterate<br />
<br />
I know things you know and nothing you don't know<br />
'cept I saw something in the way of things<br />
Something grinning at me and I wanted to know, was it funny?<br />
Was it so funny it followed me down the street<br />
Greeting everybody like the good humor man<br />
But an they got the taste of good humor but no ice cream<br />
It was like dat<br />
Me talking across people into the houses<br />
And not seeing the beings crowding around me with ice picks<br />
You could see them<br />
But they looked like important Negroes on the way to your funeral<br />
Looked like important jiggaboos on the way to your auction<br />
And let them chant the number and use an ivory pointer to count your teeth<br />
Remember Steppen Fetchit<br />
Remember Steppen Fetchit how we laughed<br />
An all your Sunday school images giving flesh and giggling<br />
With the ice pick high off his head<br />
Made ya laugh anyway<br />
<br />
I can see something in the way of our selves<br />
I can see something in the way of our selves<br />
That's why I say the things I do, you know it<br />
But it's something else to you<br />
Like that job<br />
This morning when you got there and it was quiet<br />
And the machines were yearning soft behind you<br />
Yearning for that nigga to come and give up his life<br />
Standin' there bein' dissed and broke and troubled<br />
<br />
My mistake is I kept sayin' "that was proof that God didn't exist"<br />
And you told me, "nah, it was proof that the devil do"<br />
But still, it's like I see something I hear things<br />
I saw words in the white boy's lying rag<br />
Said he was gonna die poor and frustrated<br />
That them dreams walk which you 'cross town<br />
S'gonna die from over work<br />
There's garbage on the street that's tellin' you you ain't shit<br />
And you almost believe it<br />
Broke and mistaken all the time<br />
You know some of the words but they ain't the right ones<br />
Your cable back on but ain't nothin' you can see<br />
But I see something in the way of things<br />
Something to make us stumble<br />
Something get us drunk from noise and addicted to sadness<br />
I see something and feel something stalking us<br />
Like and ugly thing floating at our back calling us names<br />
You see it and hear it too<br />
But you say it got a right to exist just like you and if God made it<br />
But then we got to argue<br />
And the light gon' come down around us<br />
Even though we remember where the (light or mic??) is<br />
Remember the Negro squinting at us through the cage<br />
You seen what I see too?<br />
The smile that ain't a smile but teeth flying against our necks<br />
You see something too but can't call it's name<br />
<br />
Ain't it too bad y'all said<br />
Ain't it too bad, such a nice boy always kind to his motha<br />
Always say good morning to everybody on his way to work<br />
But that last time before he got locked up and hurt, real bad<br />
I seen him walkin' toward his house and he wasn't smiling<br />
And he didn't even say hello<br />
But I knew he'd seen something<br />
Something in the way of things that it worked on him like it do in will<br />
And he kept marching faster and faster away from us<br />
And never even muttered a word<br />
Then the next day he was gone<br />
You wanna know what<br />
You wanna know what I'm talkin' about<br />
Sayin' "I seen something in the way of things"<br />
And how the boys face looked that day just before they took him away<br />
The is? in that face and remember now, remember all them other faces<br />
And all the many places you've seen him or the sister with his child<br />
Wandering up the street<br />
Remember what you seen in your own mirror and didn't for a second recognize<br />
The face, your own face<br />
Straining to get out from behind the glass<br />
Open your mouth like you was gon' say somethin'<br />
Close your eyes and remember what you saw and what it made you feel like<br />
Now, don't you see something else<br />
Something cold and ugly<br />
Not invisible but blended with the shadow criss-crossing the old man<br />
Squatting by the drug store at the corner<br />
With is head resting uneasily on his folded arms<br />
And the boy that smiled and the girl he went with<br />
<br />
And in my eyes too<br />
A waving craziness splitting them into the jet stream of a black bird<br />
Wit his ass on fire<br />
Or the solomNOTness of where we go to know we gonna be happy<br />
<br />
I seen something<br />
I SEEN something<br />
And you seen it too<br />
You seen it too<br />
You just can't call it's name name name name name name name