Check this… The poem that I recited was actually written the last time I was in Charlotte, NC back in November of 2003. Check it out:

I’m Not Afraid

I’m not afraid 2 explore this state, my state of mind. This place deep in the core of my brain, suspended in & wrapped in my skull. It’s funny but not so funny, how we, being you & me, never really know what is, until we ask who?… Ourselves… The questions which ignite us 2 explore this state, our state of mind. I am not afraid 2 Investigate, Interrogate, question, ga at me with a vengeance , repeating the questions in different angles. All the while, under that solidified light, swinging in the midst of a smokey room.

Different emotions flaring, showing & proving that I really didn’t know what some things really were, you know, like… this thing that “we” call Love…. With all of its obsessions, possessiveness, deceptions…I am not afraid 2 explore this state, my state of mind. After all, isn’t it in fact, “my” mind. Like, my ride.Shouldn’t I Know “my” mind?, my state?, my state of mind? Sometimes words & meanings can blind one from knowing, their state what is… They become illegal aliens with no passport, green card, no true citizenship in their own country, their state. I am by no means afraid of this state, my state of mind.

It’s still, in fact, funny, but not so funny. How I really didn’t know what some things were until I was taken into that room, space… impeached, put on the stand, interrogated, reinvestigated… Oh boy, after that session… which began when I became fearless of knowing.. I made a confession… I could no longer lie, live with a lie nor be a lie… Man 2 man, me 2 me… I discovered a truth… I was sold into a slavery of the mind by another slave… But me, I’m brave… I am no longer afraid…

4 I am not afraid 2 tell you that our parents, ancestors, what ever you aim 2 label those before us… They in fact, taught us truths & lies… Partly because they were in fact afraid & didn’t know the states of their minds… So by default they taught us what they knew, which was taught 2 them… And so we were bred aliens… 2 not completely know our states… Its like being in your house and not knowing where the master bedroom is…

T.Rich, Charlotte, NC Airport, 9:18 am, 2003, November 24