Darkness on the South-side

I see more needles with dried dark red blood in the street than kids happily playing in them,

Babies crying for food, and mothers crying oceans because they don’t have the means to feed them,

Schools are closing yearly, but prisons seem like they are opening daily,

Cost of living is skyrocketing, but social funds are plummeting,

I just want to be a lawyer, a scientist, or somebody with a Ph.D but I’m 6’3 and my community says that I should try to live out hoop dreams,

I have more access to a ball court than a library,

I see more despair than hope, more junkies and crack fiends, than people that look like me living out million dollar dreams swiping black cards for expensive things,

Gentrification, felonies, kids misdiagnosed with mental retardation, but a lack of youth leading my country to become a better nation,

Will I overcome or just become another statistic stuck at the bottom,

Either my people are dying, or they are clocking in 9 to 5’s and 10- 6’s minimum wage living at 63 because 70 for us is when we are retiring,

Not because they want to, but to keep the heat on and to give Junior a couple presents for Christmas,

Streets lights are shining like a thousand watt light bulb, but those are the only things bright on Chicago’s southside,

Mother’s cry, their babies die, and children wonder why,

They wonder why it has to be like this,

Sometimes we just want to see the our side shine, brighten up our day like the Chicago Skyline,

But no we walk in darkness on Chicago’s Southside, looking for hope that our former Senator, and current President promised us, but no one can see the pain because the sun doesn’t shine on the Soutside.