Some of this is factual, most of it ain’t a lie.
two days before autumn, fifty-two after july,
the sun shone bright. on time was her flight.
shot to lax absolute, positive like
only the shit-brown ’82 carolla could.
drive up inside arrivals, guess who lookin’ good
like five-six, archive thick, broad hips.
i downshift and coast to the curb like word.
she cheesin’ up while i easin’ up. double park,
throw the blinkers on, jump out. god bless her heart,
lookin’ like a tourist with the duffel and camera.
throw the bags in the back, we embrace then i slam the hatch.
right back where we left off
when we built for three weeks but then i stepped off.
it just so happened, we met like ships passin’,
rappin’, no actual action.
now here she was live, all the way from back home .
bodily counterpart to the voice over the phone,
i spoke to for strong minutes, long distance.
even wrote a note wit a quote o’ song in it.
the bus thrust me sixty east of la
-the length to which i went to find words to say.
3k, took me three days to get here. it took her six hours.
that equals twenty-three years.
love won’t let me wait a minute more.
there’s a bomb to the left of my passenger door
with a hundred-twenty hours to diffuse it or lose it.
got to need to relate to this queen like music
or else, else or go from wealth to poor.
never that, take the prize and floor it to the shore.
no small talk, give me a medium speech.
we fitta slit the wrist the of time on manhattan beach.
Chorus
love is like water, flowing,
flowing every which way
when you think it’s flown one direction, it done,
it done flown the other way.
Said the flight was peace, said she happy to see me,
said she wanna check her aunt in the valley of simi.
can’t believe that she here, told i couldn’t either
-right hand volleyin’ –gearshift (to) receiver.
cuz i play it by ear, she habitually plans.
twenty minutes we was parked fifty feet from the sand,
laid our troubles down like bodies on the quilt,
on the strand on september 21 and we built.
anatomical ebonics was the language,
speakin’ much silence cuz we both thinkin’ ‘bout the same shit
-how we found ourselves back together
by a bond that was based solely on fair weather.
truth be told, we ain’t really know each other.
tryin’ prove that we did gave us somethin’ show each other
and it can never be chumped again.
we left the beach and jetted east towards the comfort inn.
sixty-two minute transit through southern cali.
the hotel was near the rest in moreno valley,
where i was stayin’ wit a friend of the fam
who had made no concessions for a friend of the grand…
agent at the front desk who checked us in
was philippino. the housekeeper was mexican
and 217 was the room that she cleaned
after me and this queen has said and did everything.
we traded baths, body massages, laughs,
future aspirations and accounts of the past.
quality time, probably rhyme material.
the last breakfast: donuts, tang, cereal.
‘twas continental and the trip –monumental,
did a gang a’ things coulda swore i wasn’t into.
but the swearing was impairing my ability
to give and receive love, plus humility.
Chorus
love is like water, flowing,
flowing every which way
when you think it’s flown one direction, it done,
it done flown the other way.
love is like water, flowing,
flowing every which way...
Than real time, i was moving faster,
on a stage wit no ceremony to master.
but then saw the lights like the rest of my life:
just mics, no whores. imagine wives on tours
wit momsug. like yo, “how would you rather…?”
the cockiness to pop quiz wiz didn’t gather.
well not before she left anyway.
but i feel like i can spill and reveal it any day
and never be too soon or too late.
these thoughts and others, they run through me at the gate
while she checkin’ bags, ‘bout to make her trip round.
back to a world minus me she was bound.
and i was left behind to write this rhyme.
it took time cuz she bounced wit a piece of my mind.
yeah, disappear she did, my new cohort.
i was back on my solo and the whole airport -it felt vacant.
i’m just another face in the pool
now that my reflection’s no more visible.
back to my mci empty identity.
i wrote before she bounced even like, “remember me.”
yeah whateva ya do, darlin’ do.
cuz whateva ya did took me outta what i’m all into.
even had me second guessin’ my profession
-her presence- like a lesson that inspired such questions.
what the fuck am i still rhymin’ for?
if i ain’t blow yet, i must got bad timin’. or
it ain’t for me. could that possibly be?
i even loss a battle to a lesser emcee.
being the fresher emcee, i got my little pride hurt
for holdin’ the mic like the body inside a’ the skirt.
and practically gave the title away
cuz in a spell i would have to say, “la farewell.”
Love is like water, flowing,
flowing every which way
when you think it’s flown one direction, it done,
it done flown the other way.
love is like water, flowing,
flowing every which way
when you think it’s flown one direction, it done,
it done flown the other way.
love is like water, flowing,
flowing every which way