I Come from a City Where

It's a city where people wake up early and the sky is the hue of gray like their souls that hold no hope. They see nothing to look forward to as the sun rises over them. I come from a city where the drug dealers post on the corners, they hope drugs will make them 1 million dollars and they wish to leave this earth rich. They avoid police no Snitchin' won't speak. The single mothers work two jobs just so the kids can eat. The kids get high all day b/c that's what they saw the old heads do during times of distress. A city where women are subject to the catcalls of the sidewalk parade. She's sixteen and he's seventeen but they have to feed their one-year-old son. It's a city where the price of Air Jordans equals the price of a life and simultaneously the streets cry tears of the gunshots that strike bodies lifeless against the pavement. A city where the homeless beg but the poor can't share. A place where the garbage is more clean than our air. The pain is so deep that we forget to strive. I come from this city and I wonder why? why? why...