Ol' Girl From 79th

Sat, 02/10/2018 - 18:34 -- _zeola_

I live between 4 food and liquor stores  

2 of which are 21 and older

A Harold’s Chicken on King Drive and another on Cottage Grove

Miles of Mcdonald’s garbage

Miles of Drunks with Liquor bottles in brown bags

Plastic bags free to the world

Dozed off Heroin addicts

Crack heads as skinny as empty chicken bones

I am attached to a system where i am too afraid to apply for a job in my neighborhood

Because half the places down here have bullet proof windows I mean the ones who take the most money out of our neighborhood own bullet proof windows

And I guess you can say I'm just like every other

Bench Warrant, A Cracked card, past due college tuition bills, nowhere to turn so I go to the National Guard

They scan my fingers and I'm scared for dear life not because I'm afraid of guilty but afraid of lost opportunity

I'm angry, misguided and what I want is power

I strive for Forbes list goals

I’m mad as hell because my brighter complexion friends parents paid their college debt off before they got put on the collection list

My dad brags and still leaves me hanging

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true I

Is it crazy that when I wake up I pray to some chick called America and then to God

Dear America, Please let me make it. Please please.

Dear God, I wanna be on the Forbes list.

I personally may seem very unaware but I pay attention to everything

I hear everything

Only difference between me and you is you're trying to survive as you go

Where as I'm trying to look in as though Chicago was just a giant snow globe

Every night I dream of living in a $2,000 a month condo

Wake up to extra bubbly champagne and a 30 dollar non gmo steak and egg with extra flapjacks and real maple syrup

Wearing  one of those women Burberry suits and some thousand dollar shoes

That them drug dealers be wearing

But instead of chasing a bag of drug money

I own a bag saved in a fat safe

I dream of a time when I can ask myself what college debt, what bench warrant, when did I claim something so I wouldn't get shot, what self doubt

 

This poem is about: 
Me
My community

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