Coronation
Comport yourself, and make your hearing keen,
And I’ll relay my story, and its mean,
A life, once placid, flipped into the air,
And crowned, upon its landing: Prince, Bel Air.
~
My childhood, simply put, was simply lived;
Of games of basketball, I w’s not deprived.
In Philadelphia, my mother bore
And raised yours truly, hero of this lore.
The school day over, stress-free all throughout,
Endeavored I to max, relax, chill out.
Against this set of brotherly-type love,
A playground court’s where my crew shot and shoved.
~
Those days, a pack of scoundrels made it known:
West Philadelphia’s streets were all their own;
Chicanery and crime did they employ
So a monopoly they ran on mirth and joy.
In me a streak of mischief is endowed;
I care not what rebuke I speak aloud.
Those villains visited my court, anon,
I mouthed off and got beaten; they were gone.
~
Defeated, I reported to Old Earth:
My mother, queens of queens - who, through my birth,
Brought forth into her world an infant mild:
Defenseless I, afloat out in the wild -
Grew scared once I reported on my plight
And, bless her, called her sister that same night,
Arranging travel for her trampled son,
Reserving safety for her boy, who’d none.
The message spake, she laid my journey bare:
You’re moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air.
~
With whistles a cab I summoned straight away,
And one approached with unrefined display,
Whose license plate read, “FRESH.” It bore red lights;
Upon the rearview mirror hung felt dice.
Perplexed, I puzzled over th’ limousine
As, ne’ertheless, to Bel Air did’t convene.
~
As evening fell across Los Angeles
Our car approached a house that couldn’t be missed.
I disembarked the cab and, freshly free,
Yelled, “Smell ya later,” to the fresh cabbie.
The home engulfed my vision like a dream;
Endorphins flooded through my quick bloodstream.
At last, my destiny, my mother’s prayer:
At long last was I prince of all Bel Air!