team up

I wrote this while listening to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘dodger blue’

The same team that beat my yankees on their largest stage

I’ve been processing rage and sadness, but not cuz of baseball, 

It’s other-shit-just-fuckin’ up-my life, trying to not take it personal

but it gets personal af when the demons you know and love to hate

come back with armor – sterling, stainless steel metal upgrades,

And all you have to fight back with is your hands – once again I feel like I got played.

the demons been kickin’ in the door wavin’ the four four since the mid 2000s

but my team showed up in force, their strength was boundless.

I didn’t have to face it on my own cuz my Avengers already assembled 

and with time and love I made my own demons fucking tremble.

My team is across more places than in the past but we still team up nevertheless,

It could be a day or 10+ years, if you’re on the team you already know there’s no stress.

No uniform needed, and the field is just life,

The love of my fam and friends is the energy that gets me through strife. 

So whether it’s dodger blue, yankee blue, mets blue,

Team up for your loved ones and your true colors will shine through. – RSM

Red Hat Basura

The world spins round and it’s all up and down,

To me at least it feels like it when I walk around downtown

It’s terrible, deplorable, the world I see surrounds me

Red hats galore bring the activist out of me

I feel like a bull and they want me to chase them

They see my people and want to erase them

So what other choice do we have but to stand strong

While the grand old cowards look down on us like we don’t belong

It doesn’t really matter what the comfortable ignorants think

Because sadly they’ve been taught to not think for themselves

But gladly I do, and even if my own people ‘other’ me,

Puerto Rico is beautiful, and I’ll see the haters in hell. – RSM

Wow, Sean. I Looked Up To You.

The first rap song I ever learned was

‘Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems,’ first grade, it was all over the radio,

I heard it so much and I would rap it on the daily, bro,

I asked my mom and dad if I could get a little boombox for my room, had it on Z100 for a while, but then I found Hot 97 on the dial,

It was wild! I was a huge hip hop fan since I was a young child.

Bad Boy Records dominated NYC, MTV, and everything else hip hop that you’d see,

I learned ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ before I ever heard of the band The Police

I was PROUD that Puff Daddy went to Mount Saint Michael in my neighborhood

and how he lifted up so many other artists all the way up beyond the stars, this,

Super fly business savvy young dude from Harlem and Mount Vernon

Putting on for the city and the culture, but I’ve learned,

That what once was “cool” in the past often changes

The same way every generation has their entertainment favorites,

Bad Boy Records was the door that opened into my love for hip hop

and my whole life I was motivated by the phrase “CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP!(Eh-eh, Eh-eh)” 

I joined the track team in the 6th grade, around the same time that Diddy ran the city,

Ran through Biggie’s whole catalogue – took it on my OG white brick iPod to school with me,

“Everybody sing it now PASS THE CARVOURSIER!”

Oh sure, yeah, dude, I still love all the music, 

But truly, how does hip hop culture get through this?!

He’s not the only one for sure, just look at Hollywood,

there are far more media moguls making mad shady happenings happen and for decades it’s been happening 

So how was I so naïve to think that the rumors may not have been true,

about one of the most successful dudes from around where I grew?!

The rumors aren’t true – because the truth is actually far WORSE

And it’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of an entertainment industry that’s so perverse,

And now here I am, a true student of the game, and I’m looking at Diddy, like, 

“What a fucking shame.” – RSM

Don Zachariah and the Endless Storm

A ferocious wind whirrs, while in bed he turns, tosses and swerves,
Don Zachariah has moved up the ranks
and traded in his old sandals for new ones,
And remembers the times when he had just landed, with the hot humid air amplifying the sun,


Baking under the gaze of the jungle,
Wondering how he ended up there,
and where to go next.

Once a young monk in search of redemption,
Now a bit older, wiser; a bigger, heavier storm rages along, destroying the canoes and huts he helped to build.


And even though it’s a challenge, he’s been there before,
heavier winds of yesteryear’s past has
provided him experience to withstand any storm, inside and out.
The sun re-emerges, but the storm isn’t settled. He smiles at the challenge, though. – RSM

Spread My Ashes in Seton Falls Park

When people have asked me about my favorite place in the world

I usually, bougie-ly, would talk about another park downtown,

but upon further review, you see, with hindsight being 20/20

I feel pretty steady to say that I want my cremated remains – whenever this life is done –

to join the ‘Forever Wild’ woods I would walk through with my day-ones.

Familia and neighbors alike, we would high’k up and down the pathways

that were laid out beyond that first playground; down the long stairs

and up the dirt trails, we found a beautiful green oasis that no place else compares.

Nature with roots going back pre-colonial had welcomed me and the boys

with the freshest air I’ve ever inhaled; the birds and bugs drowned out the city’s noise

and nothing else mattered but the experience we shared.

So when (hopefully) I’m older than the average Danish cookie tin

(The one with your abuela’s sewing kit hidden inside) and my soul leaves this body of mine,

I’ll want my ashes spread in The Bronx – more specifically, amidst the trees in Seton Falls Park. – RSM

Sonnet Vol. 2 – Chasing God

It’s what we humans do, although in vain –
power hungry, curious, we chase ‘God.’
Yearning to improve, we elevate, change,
we do more, see more, live more, go beyond.

Every day we work towards something
that resembles the next step up ahead
we dedicate ourselves to just one thing:
Endless progress that we all love and dread.

Onward and upward, I’m down for that, sure,
but ‘God’ is all things, including one’s peace.
Like water, most people need a lot more
tranquility, balance – restored, so please:

Make rest and self-love a priority,
Rest is ‘God’ too. Be your own royalty. – RSM

Calm and Chaos

Gradually, reality collapses into fallacies
The news has me like “I can’t believe this shít is happening”
I see all the calm shaking hands with the chaos
I’m a Star Boy on TheWeeknd but feel like a black hole on thDaysOff


“Just play on,” goes the same song since day Juan
I’ll never give up on my next ambition, even tho this world’s just a board game, played wrong –
The rules are never fully followed and the banker always wins, you see,
Balance is delicate, and predictability itself is to be increasingly bereaved
It’s “cool” to ‘live on the edge’ every now and then
But what happens when ‘the edge’ comes through to live on you? What have you achieved?


When, starry skies are polluted and sober minds get zooted, the duty of the day and good fun become diluted;
We have no clean example of an ideal way to live
So be your own role model and give ’em hell, kid. – RSM

The Philosophy Of Cheap Sunglasses

I lost a pair of my favorite shades to the ocean.


We had a good run for a few years, they weren’t broken,


In great condition actually – the legs needed some tightening,


but overall they worked and looked good.
I found it kind of enlightening


To let them go, and know they and I had a good run,


But I wasn’t so attached or invested –


It’s part of my philosophy – apart from being well rested,


To focus on what you like, but keep an eye on the price,


Brand names are fashion scams. You can be totally glam


With a pair of sunglasses that cost as much as a pound of rice.


Practicing not being attached to things centers my soul


So when I lost my cheap shades, I just shrugged and let the good times roll. – RSM

Clear Minded Journeys

It’s been a mighty tame decade for me compared to the former,


The straight and narrow much more accurately traced.


Along this road of life, I’ve turned the proper corners, and


this wholesome behavior gives way to days when I appreciate my senses, laced


with nothing but my own starting 5, playing to perfection; a trip with nothing but a sober head on a swivel,


Slowly, so surely surveying a straight edge’s point of view on the realm of reality we can accurately perceive – “raw-dogging life,” if you will,


can yet yield experiences far more valuable than one may estimate.


Just take a look at where these words took you – somewhere far and distant, deep into another person’s psyche.


One’s five senses alone makes quite the experience, no matter what add ons you prefer.


Life at its base is trippy as shit. – RSM