Who I am

Can you have legacy while you’re still living? 

Who’s telling your story while you’re still breathing? Who’s telling mine while you breathe me in? 

Who shares my history ? Who guards my breath?

Who dreams my life beyond each death?

Who protects my present? Who’s shaping my future? 

Will you say you love me and refuse to plant roots in me?

Will you let your children grow and rise in me?

Will you use my magic to light your mind,

But leave my souls and streets behind?

Will you invest in me but not care if the return is in my people?

Will you be the ones that claim my name

and scoff at my struggles just the same?

If so, this distant love is nothing new to me. My namesake never knew me. 

Never knew what really became of me, never knew the life that flew through me.

If you’re a real one you know, I don’t need to trapp-er to keep-er

Because honey,

I’m the that Old Apple-tree and sympathy

I’m innovation, grit and determination

I’m yellopain, grandiose and rel mane

I’m the Marco’s slide… the Dragons flame 

I’m Cocos without Chanel and I’m the Night with a Beast

I’m that Toxic Ugly Duckling wearing Silver Slippers 

I’m Patterson, Ludlow and Kettering…but I am not Kettering

I'm the rev of an engine, the glide of register, the crack of a can.

I’m the beep of a scan and the funk in the beat

I warped that wing. I cracked those codes.

My triangles played that first game

And its ‘bout time everyone knows… I gave the world a step up on my ladder

I am the gem that glittered this globe and noone can go a day without my sparkle’s embrace

The world doesn’t have to love me or care about my fame

But damn it, they better know my name.

I am DAYTON.