Shooters (Edward's 7/30)

There are shooters in this game
Not with bended knees for free throws
Shooters
With syringes and needles
Shooters
With 9 millimeters--the heat blow
And police will trap you
So you'll have to split defenders
Between 13 other dope boys
That can't afford attorneys

When I first met
The Ferguson's
Zedric carried the weight
Of his father's sentencing
Like he was palming a basketball
He was set to use those hands
To execute with finger rolls or triggers
He chose the latter
Would rather
Be a shooter
Than be on lock
Like the safety on his weapon
Now Zedric's
Laid up in a box
Like a basket
On a fast break

We already know how the game ends
With the buzzer sounding
And two dozen shell casings
Like buzzards surrounding
His body
The buzz word for "found dead"
Is "Blackmale"
So Zedric's statistics
Won't show up in boxscores
Of the sports section
His statistics
Will show up
In some sociological case study
It's socio-economics--race and money
Left Zedric the 16th seed
In an income bracket
Where the Final Four to survive the hood
Are never tge shooters of heroine
Or loaded pistols

He was a Ferguson
Who wore the expectations of his last name
Like the streets were his jersey
Repped his block
Like Dikembe Mutumbo
You wouldn't dare ever cross him
He never played man-to-man
Him
His canon
His hammer
Made a good triple team
And the only time
He aimed high in life
Is when he was blazed with the triple beam

Shooter
But bullets aimed with triple beams
Still don't care who you are
Shooter
Fiends hooked like shots by Kareem
Adul-Jabar
Shooter
Bullets with no name on them
Like John Doe's
Waiting to find a home
Some won't have
Exit wound evictions
Zedric would rent out
The back of his cranium
Like it was a stadium
To shoot bullets with his name on them
As if Zorro initialed the shell casings
With "Z"

Zedric will fade away
From our memory
Like a Jordan jump shot
Except for the archived
Star Tribune article
We already know how the game ends
Shooter
With 9 millimeter let the heat blow
Left Zedric on some black top
Behind Wendy's
On Lake Street
With chalk outlining
His body like the NBA logo
Some shooters
Find out too late in the game
Well into the 4th quarter
Of that raw they slang
That sometimes
The streets shoot back