CLOUD NINE

(In memory of Garfield Blackman,
a prince who walked among us)

Cloud nine
will only cloud your mind
and make you get left behind;
cloud nine
will only cloud your mind,
you’ll get caught, hook, sinker and line.
You’ll end up doing time,
broke without a dime,
among the vagrant slime,

no reason, no rhyme;
dirt and grime
and a life of crime.
So the media extol
the virtues of alcohol,
they still sell tobacco
even though
the CMO say no.
You think that it macho,

it hip to be high,
instead you end up so low,
feel you want to die.
Trying to fill that void,
all you get is paranoid
in a life demeaning,
of meaning devoid.
You living a delusion,
chasing an illusion;

all you get is hallucination
and your life full with frustration.
Following bad company,
now who is bad company,
now you is bad company,
you never listened to your mammy
pulling you off that track,
that rocky road to crack;
thought she was wack,

now you know is a fact,
friend does carry
but don’t bring you back.
The world is now your enemy,
can’t face reality;
you been taken for a ride
down the road to suicide.
The world is now your enemy,
can’t face your family;

you lied and denied,
they cried and they cried,
Lord knows they tried,
no longer can you hide
a curse and a disgrace,
don’t want to see your face.
Your name is Distress,
a perfect pest,
now you under arrest

and you feeling depressed.
You thought you was hard,
you was doing hard dope,
now you know that you soft,
you softer than soap;
you can’t even cope
and you don’t have a hope.
Now you suffer and suffer,
can’t satisfy this hunger,

can’t afford to feed the monster
eating out inside you,
what you gonna do?
You done sell all you had
but the monster still mad,
so you steal and you steal
and you sell and you sell;
is ill that you ill
and you heading for hell.

Your name is Distress,
a perfect pest,
if the law don’t hold you
somebody will kill you.
You making people suffer
while the dealer getting richer;
just a mindless user
being used by the pusher
cause you hooked,

hook, line and sinker.
Just a pathetic jumbie,
reduced to a non-entity,
a despicable nobody,
fugitive from society;
it killing you softly,
slowly but surely,
destroying your mind,
your soul and your body.

From the womb to the tomb,
is doomed you doomed,
from the crib to the crypt,
you on a death trip;
now is the time,
you running out of time.
Be quick! Be quick!
You have to break that line.
Cloud nine

will only cloud your mind
and make you get left behind.
You have to live
positive and constructive,
keep clean
and stay green,
like a fruitful tree,
a healthy human being,
positive and productive,

contributing,
to the upliftment of humanity.
Don’t have to be sick
to get high off the music,
could be your final fix,
is nothing to kix,
falling from a cloud
into a latrine hole,
floating around

in a toilet bowl.
Climb out of the pit,
that deep, dark hole,
quit that hit
and regain control,
kick that habit
and redeem your soul.
Be bold! Be bold!
You have to break that hold.

Behold! Life’s treasure
across the threshold.
Get off cloud nine
and you will feel fine,
forget cloud nine
and look to the Divine.
Make haste! My brother,
make haste!
A mind is a treasure

too precious to waste
and life is a treasure
much too precious to debase.
Cloud nine
will only cloud your mind...
and make you get left behind;
cloud nine
will only cloud your mind,
you’ll get caught, hook, sinker and line...

Copyright ©1991 by G. Newton V. Chance