Mathieu Charles: Saul Williams

When I was younger, in the wings, between the planks

Where I let splinters of longing burn into my body

Played with fire, then wiped the ash from my tongue

With the idea that thereby demons were expelled

Until even my inner monologues began to fade and I lived in silence,

And those silences became unbearably heavy for my surroundings

And the weight to perform sank me deeper

Surrounded by a system of waterfalls

No manuals, no irrigation for my irritation

Until I found Saul, Saul Williams, in various incarnations

Books, films, music,

I began to rhyme and scream

To glue the past, to write scars

While I listened to Amethyst Rock Star

And read from, Said the Shotgun to the Head

I knew that Hip Hop was my literature

And I have nothing to do with Belgium’s sorrow

For Belgium brings me sorrow

And so I move forward on a beat, a scratch

A rhythm, a rap

Connect myself with the continent and the Black Atlantic

With the Autobiography of Malcolm X and the Indian Ocean

With coded language & if you know you know

The DEAD EMCEE SCROLLS and everything the Diaspora has given me

I now more often break my silences and the debris became building blocks.