My Brooklyn

Briley Gabriel

Brooklyn Days

I grew up in East Flatbush
Foster and Forty-Second Street
I spent all my summer days
In the park on Albany

Watchin all my "peoples" play
ballin' in the mid-day heat
or on the corner after dark
Where the "Four-Two" crew would meet.

In my backwards baseball cap
Ridin' George's handle bars
No brakes on that old dirt bike
Weaving in and out of cars

Playin skelly in the street
Catch a matinée movie
Liked it so much, yes we did;
snuck a second show for free

I grew up in East Flatbush
So did all my friends, and we
SWORE that we would Always be
Click tight "Forty-Duce" posse!

In a fight they had my back
whether we were friends or not
you couldn't come from Ninety-First
and step to me up on MY block.

I've since left those Brooklyn streets
Left for points more West and South
But my heart's still in the "BUSH"
Though my friends are long gone now.

Some are dead and some are jailed.
Some are strung out on that crack.
But it wasn't always so.
Even now when I look back

I can see those Brooklyn days
We were "homeboys" in the hood.
In my heart, it stays that way
Back when it was still, All good.

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