180000
4
We entered this life
In the bubble ...of familiar forms
Alphabet songs
...and toys to play with
A world consumed with
...peek-a-boo and kisses
What will we grow up to be
...a dream lost in the clouds
Boys ...astronauts, doctors, lawyers, soldiers
Girls ...princesses, nurses,
mothers-to-be
Meanwhile, the turmoil of the day
Largely, were kept from us
Unless, of course
We lived
In a
ghetto war-zone
A different+reality
An armed stockade of misery
Protected only by the shield
Of motherhood
Even though in truth
Mom may have been
...a sole+provider
Holding her own ...as best she could
The day by day struggle to be
Her man perhaps a casualty
...of urban warfare
Childhood
Is entirely another world
Social skill becomes
a different battle
Just when expectations
need to soar …taking flight
The daily news delivers
…another dose
Of poison to aspiring souls
But, the love which binds
Still, is too strong
The heat is on each day
The preparatory source, the school
Reinforces what is to be
…the foundation of
Lifelong careers
for the searching soul…
But competition …from the world
of criminal enterprise
Competes for the minds
...that matter most
Only love demands the ghost
…of a chance of success
Pushes the camel through the eye of the needle
Makes the most hopeless
of those to excel
Escape the gravitational pull
...of Hell
To wrack up win after win
Despite the threat
….Of loss
Despite the threat
…Of loss
C2
