COUNTING GRAVES

By The Steinmenauts

10...9...8...

 

7-year-old boy put

6 feet deep in a

5-foot coffin, wonderin’ what

4 while

3 grown men have to

2 to drive by and he dodged a couple of bullets but

1

 

JÉSUS:

Room as bright as a the box little brother sleeps in (sleeps in)

Big brother, feeling like a magician,

cut it up in the corner with mary jane cause like mom and little brother

he already made Jack Daniels disappear

 

and as

 

tears trickle down face, veins and eyes bloodshot red,

heart pounds like beating drums in Africa.

Being a provider was his only mistake.

 

BIG C:

Just counting graves to go to sleep because

counting sheep stopped working since he

decided to not breathe.

Keep telling myself it’s not my fault

but as my conscience decides to talk I really don’t know anymore.

You see my pain bursts through my soul like an open sore

and I can’t escape my thoughts because there’s no more open doors.

 

KEVIN:

This pitch-black chamber

as dark as a vexed soul

only vivid images pop in and out of existence like quantum physics.

Big brother, where are you, I can’t see, I can’t (breath).

I’m hot.

My bed is now a five-foot box and I’m not comfortable in it.

Mama said you shouldn’t leave me alone for more than five minutes.

 

BIG C:

But I only left you alone for about six minutes.

Maybe if I came right back you would be still living.

 

KIRA:

Boy, all you had to do was look after my second progeny.

Honestly, how hard is it to be my eyes for me?

 

BIG C:

Quit doubting me!

It’s not my fault.

They thought it was me. You see...

 

KEVIN:

You see that Makaveli Fitch you didn’t want me to wear?

I took it, along with your Chicago Bulls jacket.

You had it that night when you were selling sugar packets.

 

JÉSUS:

Hustling a sugar-like substance in the form of pot and rocks

on a block run by three hustlers who didn’t like him

decided that

the only way to get their commission was to put him out of his.

So they drove by and saw one guy sitting on the steps

wearing big brothers’ clothes

gun out, pulled the trigger six times

[Kevin: boom boom boom boom boom boom]

and then the sound of tires turned like mama in her grave.

 

KIRA:

So you telling me in my dreams I can hardly conceive

nightmares haunt me when I’m the deceased?

A mother’s worst fear

and you made it come true.

I said watch out for little brother

not be a damn fool.

My baby was only in the second grade

gunned down ‘cause you wanted to be a street slave.

You should’ve been there to keep little brother safe!

 

JÉSUS:

Haunted by the voices of the deceased

he can’t

 

ALL:

Speak!

 

KEVIN:

Big brother can I wear your shirt

I promise to take good care of it, man.

(Big C: No...)

 

KIRA:

Baby I’m off to work, keep an eye on little brother, you understand

(Big C: No...)_

 

KEVIN: Why’d you take that shirt off for me to wear it, huh?

 

KIRA: That should’ve been you in front of that gun.

 

All: 10!

 

JÉSUS: Picks up the gun

 

All : 9!

 

JÉSUS: Contemplates.

 

All: 8!

 

JÉSUS:

The number of weeks his little brother was buried.

After all

he was only

 

7-year-old boy put

6 feet deep in a

5-foot coffin, wonderin’ what

4 while

3 grown men have to

2 to drive by and he dodged a couple of bullets but

1

 

BIG C:

I’m sick and tired of these three things haunting me.

 

KEVIN:
Mama’s voice

 

KIRA:

His grave

 

BIG C:

My gun

 

ALL:

Click click

BOOM!