Distraction from the Gas Station Gangsta

A brief scene from a gas station offers a distraction for students of an inner-city school. One in a series of related poems.

Originally posted at www.hiphopcars.com

I.

By his Cadillac Escalade, the driver wears a Ray Ban shade. The kids see this and think the man’s made.

II.

Got spinning hubcap and GPS map. He has those kids thinking money is at his tap.

III.

But, he made his bank through thug life’s sake. The kids don’t know he’s really a snake.

IV.

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.

Originally published on www.replicaplans.com

V.

He’ll be gunned down, like some mangy hound with Uzis and Mac10s

screaming that tat-tat-tat sound.

VI.

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 unmentioned aspects 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
• Fun in the Sun Until the Gun