Distraction from the Gas Station Gangsta
By his Cadillac Escalade,
the driver wears a Ray Ban shade.
The kids see this
and think the man's made.
Got spinning hubcap
and GPS map.
He has those kids thinking
money is at his tap.
But, he made his bank
through thug life's sake.
The kids don't know
he's really a snake.
In an hour's time,
he'll be a victim of crime.
This, much of his own doing,
for death's bell he'll chime.
He'll be gunned down,
like some mangy hound
with Uzis and Mac10s
screaming that tat-tat-tat sound.
But the kids won't see this,
for it's something they'll miss.
Today, they see what the man made,
and, reality they'll dismiss.
The Unwritten Competition for Hearts and Minds of High Schoolers
The gas station exists, and it was often frequented by the type of people mentioned in the poem. One of the unwritten or mentioned aspect to teaching in an inner-city school is that you have to compete with gangstas, taggers, and thugs for the students' attentions...as well as their souls.
Sometimes, we, the teachers and faculty of the school, lose the battle. Students see them hustling and making the bucks while they sit there in the classroom being forced to learn things they don't deem as important.
Yet, as the gangsta's fate is revealed, they don't realize that there's a heavy price to pay if they choose their life-styles.
Other Poems
- Rosecrans Avenue: Five Cinquain Poems
Five cinquains about street life. Also, information about the street that inspired it, as well an explanation of what cinquains are. - Fun in the Sun Until the Gun
There's no such thing as paradise when the bullets start flying and there's panic in the streets. One in a series of poems focusing on the dark side urban life.
© 2016 Dean Traylor
