Bound

For my cousin...who's no longer here with us..i wish i wrote this when it mattered.

He was always either college bound or wheelchair bound.

But his math scores weren't good enough for college.

But good enough to count grams

A 9 - 5 only paid by the hour

Drugs paid by the pound

Plus 9 months, wasn't long enough

to find a job right out of high school 

while his girlfriends water broke

He watched her water brake like his self-esteem

Brake like the very ATM card 

he uses to separate flour, 

I mean cocaine, but he called it flour

His mother hasn't seen flowers since

his dad died and the mortgage company

sent a sympathy card along with the new bill.

Sympathy is reaction to the distress 

or need of another human being

And mom needs the lights to stay on

to see the flowers her son bought her

And needs the water bill paid 

to keep those flowers alive

Needs the gas on to cook for her son

Needs the mortgage paid so she has a place

to pray at night for his safe return

From the very streets that accepted him

when the world first rejected him

He rolls with the punches
But all boxers take that hit
harder than crack fiends one day

Hopefully he will wind up wheelchair bound

because there is still hope in a soul that's been 
though tragedy and can tell its story

Then a lost soul 

dead to the streets 

with no story at all...

Reviews

[AMarie]

Wow, power piece. Very vivid depiction of a struggle. I love the flow. Would love to hear this performed live.. Beautiful job.

[Marquise]

thank you very much! I will surely consider doing that soon!

[AMarie]

Keep me posted.. I'd love to know how the reading goes. I love to follow the careers of those I see potential in.