Yeah, I'm out that Brooklyn
Now I'm down in Tribeca
Right next to DeNiro
But I’ll be hood forever
- Jay-Z, "Empire State Of Mind"

Is pious pious because God loves pious?
- Jay-Z, "No Church In The Wild"

Supposing you saw me, middle
aged, middle class & white
walking in your neighborhood.
What would you do? Do you have a landlord?
What did you have for breakfast?
Your wife's wig collection is worth
more than fourteen times what I owe
on my student loan which is itself three
times the median annual income in Brooklyn,
where you grew up. I'm sorry,
I realize that's not a question. When the protestors
camped out on Wall Street, did you worry
about interest rates? Did you sympathize?
Maybe you did both. Did you know
I thought I had food poisoning
last week but it turned out
I had gone a whole day without eating
& it had been decades since I'd felt
a hunger pang so I'd forgotten
what that particular flavor
of discomfort meant? Would you park
any of your cars at the intersection
of Rockaway and Livonia overnight?
Did you know The Black Album helped
me get past my divorce? How does
that make you feel? Do you ever wonder
where any of your regulars
from when you were a dope boy
are now? Does knowing
I admire you change how you read
the previous question? Is being holy
an intrinsic quality, like the redness
of a ripe apple, or is it imbued
by context & action, like how that apple
can be eaten? What happens to a dream
eaten? Did you know I lived in a trailer
park when I was a boy? Do you find it ironic
or fitting that I learned all the break dance
moves I know from another boy in the ballet
class my stepmother made me take,
that I remember how to glissade
and how to moonwalk about the same?
What is the President like? Do you think
I can be holy? Is there a term
for the specific kind of loneliness
one feels moments after achieving
the long-sought goal? Are they cursed
or blessed who get exactly
what they want? Am I red, or am I eaten?