I tried my best to keep the boys
from getting into trouble,
but the drugs got Malik,
Lionel got shot in a drive-by,
so now there’s only Khalan.
He be a good boy,
stay in school, study hard,
maybe be the first one
in this messed up family
to graduate high school.
I hate the neighborhood,
gang boys on every corner,
but I can’t afford better.
There’s only some places worse.
I work six days a week
at Mrs. Barton’s house
and I always work late.
Sometimes she makes me wear
a servant’s uniform
and serve snacks to her friends.
If I could find another job
I quit that stuck-up bitch.
She always criticize me,
but jobs be hard to find.
She give me left overs
when it’s not the good food
and I gotta take it
or she tell me I’m ungrateful.
I hate to admit it
but we can use the food.
When I get off the subway
I too tired for the supermarket,
so I just get frozen meals
from the corner grocery
and hope no one rob it
until I get out of there,
don’t get shot and get home safe.
I’m always too tired to cook
even though Mama taught me good,
just glad there’s enough to eat.
Somehow I keep things goin
until Khalan finish school
then he get a good job,
we move somewhere far away
from this rotten neighborhood
where they don’t shoot someone each night.
I don’t know what I do then,
but I quit that stuck up bitch
and her stinkin left-overs
even if I have to live on welfare.
The streets grow dirtier,
more crime ridden,
more violent
in poverty neighborhoods,
where hope for the future
has been tarnished
by inequality,
lack of opportunity,
except for the wealthy
who can afford what they want
and comfortably ignore
the struggles of the poor
to provide for their children
in the digital city
where barriers for advancement
only lower for the haves.
Industrial progress
includes innovation
and once in a while
a dream product arrives
that elates criminals
who illegally get
untraceable pistols,
so the way to catch them
is when they’re carrying.
Law enforcement limits
now forbid stop and frisk,
the only practical way
to catch weapons on the street.
Racial sensitivities
about who the police stop
are far more important
than protecting the public
from illegal gun carriers,
eager to demonstrate
their use of a pistol.
The rise of China
on the world stage
threatens America
who ruled economically
for many years
dominating countries
with the power of the dollar.
Then industry went abroad,
no longer paid taxes
until there wasn’t enough cash
to buy foreign governments,
thus creating a void
that China occupied,
rich with our dollars
a balance of trade,
productive economy
and global ambitions
to replace America
as the policeman of the world
by investing billions
in other countries,
Africa, Asia,
South America,
building roads, tunnels,
high speed trains,
buying mines,
local companies,
until almost as hated
as the ugly American,
as Western exploiters
became superfluous
from floods of Chinese money,
distantly supported
by a growing military
eager for action,
while former rulers
became cautious, fearful,
divided in purpose,
removing leadership
creating a vacuum
that nature abhors,
leaving China to fill the gap
and need not destroy
diminishing America,
just let it contract
and become a relic
like former empires.
Objectives is an unpublished poetry collection that reveals the demands, fears and troubles of a struggling society no longer capable of resolving difficult problems: 'Mother II', 'Urban Decay', 'Ghost Guns', 'Gathering Storm', 'Replacement'.