image from pinterest.com
Corner Boy
“Danger doesn’t lurk around every corner, but it
does hang out waiting for fear to show up.”
--Anonymous.
I’m 14, making
300 bucks a week.
There may be
easier ways to make money
than standing on a corner
selling crack, but
I can’t think of one.
Hearing the crack
of gunfire,
I reach for my Glock,
I don’t need school,
just bullets.
Glenn Buttkus
Quadrille
Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub
A powerful punch in realities gut here dude! Radiates truth like a bonfire. Sadly, that is likely the pure simple logic of much of the youth prowling the dangerous streets. Excellent write!
ReplyDeleteWhen did you start selling crack?
ReplyDeleteSuch a powerful point of view and perspective in this, Glenn. Deeply sad, and so well done. Love the double "crack."
ReplyDeleteDamn, Glenn. Raw and powerful writing that's 100% truth. Great photo to accompany this piece too. Excellent!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the flip comment Glenn. But making $300 a week would get him laughed off the streets. In these parts, crack, opioids, meth are rampant. We have at least 20 deaths a week directly related to crack alone. It is in all segments of society too. Not just the "black" segments. I am numbed to anything about drug selling and the danger involved. Drugs is a real problem. I don't know about your neck of the woods but these people know what they are getting into and have an arsenal of guns. They have school buses riding around manufacturing meth. Sometimes one gets stopped and caught. Even in this respectable neighborhood, the house behind us was busted for manufacturing meth and selling it and crack. So I am numb when it comes to the perspective of this. I say, good riddance. People need to get their heads out of the clouds and realize when a true problem drugs is in their little world.
ReplyDeleteReality! unwise or damaging. Happens
ReplyDeleteHappy Monday
Much✏love
Well done Glenn! A sad commentary on what goes on every day in this country.
ReplyDeleteTruthful words.
ReplyDeleteThis hits hard and very powerful too. Are there solutions to this kind of problem?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the characterization and perspective. We really do need to at least imagine the life of those living this life before we can get to the source or solution of the problem, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI like that quote about danger and fear. Well sekected with the poem about selling crack.
ReplyDeleteWhat a dark way to make your money... but there is a rationale behind it.
ReplyDeleteThese kids make out that they’re so hard, so tough, ‘I don’t need school, / just bullets’, but inside they are still kids. What they need are different, better role models.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteA sad commentary on the reality of drugs and guns, and the legion of our youth who are going astray into that dark world.
Really well done Glenn, and a sad truth these days.
ReplyDeleteWow just wow on this. If I ever do an anthology of poems for youth I would want to include this poem.
ReplyDeleteI worked as a juvenile probation officer for 18 years and saw many kids like them. After awhile they stop being kids, just mules with guns looking for a reason to pull the trigger. I wish I was kidding. They are a symptom of a sick inequitable society as surely as the hedge fund managers and those wrapped up in child slaver rings.
ReplyDeleteYep. Powerful poeming.
ReplyDeleteJust glad that Glock is not uneasy in the hallowed halls of a school.
If only schools and communities could convince this kid of some other options worth working towards.