Ten Toes on the Asphalt

Ten Toes on the Asphalt

I learned how to pray with my knees on cracked concrete,
the church bells muffled by the traffic,
mama humming hallelujah into the hush of our hallway.
We wore Sunday like armor —
polished shoes, polished lies,
but the grace was real even when the rent was late.

I am built from corners and comebacks.
My laugh is loud enough to scare away ghosts.
My hands know how to work and how to hold.
If you want proof, look at the way I keep showing up:
for cousins with empty pockets,
for old men who remember the neighborhood before it got famous,
for queens folding laundry like they fold the world around them.

Black love taught me how to be brave.
Not the Instagram kind,
the kind that holds a hand while the lights blink out,
that cooks rice with extra salt because hope tastes better warm.
She taught me forgiveness like a currency —
spent it often, earned it back in smiles.

They ask me wha...

Concrete Gospel

Listen — the street hums like a hymn, neon prayers in the gutters,
and the city keeps the beat of our heartbeats,
steel-toed rhythms stamping out the silence.
We learned to speak in sirens and dollar bills,
to baptize our dreams in corner store light,
to plant seeds in cracked concrete and call them crops of hope.

You grew up with yesterday on your shoulder,
a mixtape of old fights and lullabies your mama whispered
when the rent was due and the lights were low.
She taught you how to stand even when knees shook,
how to lace courage like boots and walk anyway.
Remember that. Remember she kept the grocery bag open
and closed her eyes so you could see more than hunger.

The grind is loud — it calls your name in the morning,
pounds on your door at midnight, offers you fame in a paper wrapper.
Do not take the wrapper for the meal.
There are folks with silver smiles who sell shortcuts like gospel,

Concrete Prayer

My city hums like a throat clearing — morning coffee, tires, the backyard radio.
Streets remember your name before you do,
and concrete keeps the stories of the ones who thought they could fly
and the ones who learned the shape of falling.

I learned to pray standing on a stoop,
hands in my pockets like I mean it,
listening for the siren that tells me somebody else is dying
while my heart keeps time with a boom-bap drum
only I can hear when the lights go green.

Mama said plant seeds,
not the kind you pawn for a quick night,
but the slow kind that take roots under porch steps,
between dollar bills and rent notices.
So I plant respect, a little love, a whole lot of stubbornness.
I water it with work — the midnight shift, the poems on napkins,
the promises I make out loud to my future self.

We grind like there’s an award for surviving,
like success is a loud chain you can buy and wear in ...

Relentless Rhythm

I move like the city breathes —
short gasps between streetlights,
long sighs when trains pass in the night.
We know the cadence here:
sirens, laughter, the old man whistling at dawn,
the baby crying through the thin walls,
hope rattling like change in a tin cup.

I learned to pray with my knees bent
and my back straight.
Mama said, "Boy, your faith gotta be louder than the music."
So I put my foot on the pedal
and I ride with a hymn in my chest,
because grind without grace is just noise,
and noise don't feed nobody.

We were taught to hustle and hush,
to count blessings in the dark
and dreams when the lights flicker.
Some nights I wore my hunger like a coat,
patched at the seams but warm enough
to keep me moving.
I met brothers on stoops who held the world
in the hollow of their hands —
small maps folded, big eyes mapped to stars.
We traded stori...

Concrete Prayers

I wake before the city shakes,
put my hand on the hood of dawn like it owes me something.
The block is breathing slow—sirens stitch the seams,
corner stores pulse with fluorescent prayer.
Mama taught me how to count blessings between red lights,
told me every stop sign is just a comma in God’s sentence.
I keep her voice folded in my jacket, warm as change.

We grind like gears that never learned to rest,
hustle in our teeth until the moon spits sunrise.
There is poetry in the grease of late-night fries,
in the way a baby’s breath hushes a busted streetlight.
I plant seeds in the cracks of sidewalks, whispering future—
small seeds: respect, seed-money, sugar for the kids, grace for the old heads.
They sprout stubborn, leaning toward whatever light they can find.

You say the hood is a failing grade, I say it’s tough love—
scars teach you to run straighter, to keep you...

Blocklight Sermon

They say the city teach you
how to breathe in the ash.
It teaches you how to pray
with your back against a brick wall
and your pockets full of yesterday’s promises.

Morning smells like coffee joints
and the greasy hymn of the corner grill.
The subway hums like an old saxophone,
a low moan that keeps the rhythm
of folks hustlin' through the dawn.
We move in the same beat —
two steps forward, one step sideways,
one prayer tucked in a sneaker.

Mama raised me on thrift-store Sundays,
soft gospel and harder truths.
She said, "Boy, keep your head low,
but keep your heart loud."
So I walk with my heart loud,
footsteps on cracked sidewalks
shouting back to the sky.

We got stoops that double as altars,
neighbors that double as kin.
Old man Reyes with the paper bag wisdom,
little Tasha with the big laugh — both saints.
We share grief like we sha...