By(e)-gone Homies

When a young boy wants to be 
down he looks up to drug dealers 
like moons and forefathers. 
He dreams of the day he can roam 
blocks freely without his mother 
eagle eyeing his whereabouts.

So he opens the front door every 
morning like the cover of a textbook and 
studies the kinematics of a criminals stride; 
the cinematics of a drug dealers swagg. 
The way young girls watch them like 
the backs of fathers that walked 
out of their life years ago.

This is so far from a coincidence that 
you can barely see the connection. 
But its there waiting on your doorstep; 
on the corner of the poppy store with 
the dope boys.

And when your finally old enough to 
hear your mother’s words like 
summer homework assignments, 
all of those childhood dreams will 
come true.

Friends will become strangers and 
mistakes will be a permanent marker 
of blindfold on your vision.

I just hope you don’t run all of your 
loved ones out of your life, 
before they have a chance to save it.