A Warped POV by A. Dacosta Brathway

November 3rd, Thursday... I was flipping the channels on my idiot box and I stumbled on an interview with the newly wed/newly separated/soon to be divorced Kim Kardashian. She was whining about how sad she was and about how hard it's going to be for her to go on... blah, blah, blah...
I started thinking. How hard can it be for a woman who claims to be distraught about her failed marriage? She claims that she needs to find a secluded place to lick her wounds. If she is so hurt, I'm thinking it would be very easy to go away... Just GO AWAY!!! Point your ass towards the horizon and get ta steppin'.The problem with her is, she cannot get enough attention! I'm right this minute listening to an interview with her mother explaining that her daughter wants marriage and have babies desperately. She could have had those things several times over. The problem is that those things do not require a camera and a live microphone and someone asking personal questions you claim you won't answer while you are answering them for your "reality" show public who has nothing else to do but live their life vicariously through yours!
I don't know... maybe it's me! I have a problem with a woman who cries about taking off her clothes in front of a camera, then complains about taking taking off her clothes in front of a camera! (Yeah, right, that pimple on your ass and the cellulite on your legs is butt ugly!)
What price freedom?

A Warped POV by A. Dacosta Brathway

January 18th, Monday/ I have to say that I am not a big music video fan but I sometimes watch them to see who is doing what out there in pop land. There is one chick that has my undivided attention... And that chick is Lady Gaga!!! Talk about reinventing the wheel? To me she seems to be a cross between Madonna, Annie Lenox and "Lily" (Herman Munster's wife) and I don't mean that in a bad way! This girl has an act!
If she were mentoring girls and said that "you can be anything you want!" to them, I would believe her! She is something different! The clothes, the hair, the makeup, the dance routines, the singing, the lyrics... I could only wish that my balls were big enough to be that different! I wonder what planet she is from? (I know she is from New York but that is like being from another planet!)
Anyway, I applaud her because she dares to be... whatever! Too bad the whole world is not that free in mindset to be that expressive. Maybe it would be a better place if we could all live and let live... But, no. We are trapped in a thought process that is way too restrictive and discriminating. It seems like the more alike we are in thinking, the better for some folks!
Pat Robinson had the audacity to say that the earthquake Haiti endured was self imposed because Haiti made a pact with the devil! I saw a news report on 60 Minutes where dead bodies were being loaded into dump trucks by a huge earth mover! Now, even if I thought that, how could I be so insensitive to spread that comment around, considering the circumstance?
One day, before I leave the planet, I would like to experience just one day where my mind thought like Lady Gaga thinks! Just one day I would like to know what that feels like... To be that free of thought where I dared to do whatever and not worry about what others thought... Man, that would be some kind of freedom(?)!

A Slice of Burnt Apple Pie by A. Dacosta Brathway

Well rounded fruit w/ a seedy core,
harvested & brought on ships
to bore...
to maintain cheap cost labor
& preserve the favor
of the mindset
of that time...
Looked upon as the
acceptable flavor
when cooked in the Southern ovens
of the cotton fields...
Baked just right
until the crust darkens
& hardens...
w/out pardons until the work is done!
False perceptions fed to like minds,
holding the image of a false Utopia,
living said lifestyle
as the juice drips slowly
from the cracks in between the crust
on the window sills of the big White House.
Sunday mornin' breakfast
is just the right time,
to quarter and make a point
to teach the lesson
by dividing the joints
& dispersed among the gods around the table
to enjoy the fruit of your labor
while you sing freedom songs in the mud
& mourn the loss of your religion & your manhood.

Funny how time just seals all wounds
but the pain still lingers as the experience
is all relative.
"Things are so much better!"
they say while you psychologically suffer,
all ignorant to your mental illness.
Back in the day you came from inventors,
now reduced to relentors
as your History escapes you because of your lack of focus,
watching the daze go by.
Used to be a welcomed sight,
indigenous & all,
now an eyesore as gentrification sets in.
The technology has replaced you
& is less labor intensive,
yet far more entertaining
'cause the "new sex" is on cable TV,
brought to you by BET
or whomever else is shooting
the new rump shaker video
& Master Bates indulges in the new taboo.

(c) A. Dacosta Brathway 2008

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

July 20th, Friday/ I was rushed to the tv set to watch two guys who have managed to scam their way into corporate America for some reason unbeknownst to me. My friends made a big deal out of it. They thought is was some great deed. I, personally, did not and do not give one rat's ass about something like that. Why? Because it has nothing to do w/ the price of tea in China! I mean, sometimes I just don't care about stupid people doing stupid things on tv! I have come to understand that whatever freedom I perceive I have will never outweigh the freedom a white man has anywhere in the world so I have a hard time getting excited about what someone is doing on a tv show! My line of thinking is this: If I scam my way into something and I get exposure for what I did, my black ass is going to jail!/ CRAP!

CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

June 5th, Thursday/ Well, Independence Day, '07 is in the books and I have to admit that I'm feeling more independent than I've felt in a long time! I'm no closer to getting a job than I was yesterday, I still don't have a girlfriend, and I'm broke! Yet, w/out those things, I am free! Somehow what we crave, as human beings, enslaves us. I was watching some of the fireworks shows last night and it amazed me how many people were singing God Bless America w/ such joyful looks on their faces. We're in a war, gas prices are through the roof, and global warming is killing us, literally, and we THINK we're free! [I guess there is a difference between being free and being independent...(?)] Being black makes me sensitive to anything that I think enslaves me (I need to see a therapist about that!) and the shit that is going on now is really fucking w/ my head! But, what is cool about America is I can go through whatever drama that is in front of me, fact or fiction, and no one will give a fuck because w/out the things I mentioned I don't have means I don't count in America anyway! I guess God IS blessing America! We probably shouldn't waste what precious time we have left by worrying about things that would and should concern us in the distant future or anytime really. We're, already, the walking dead! So I should understand what it is when another American looks me in the face, in passing, and does not see me at all!/ CRAP!