Advice Given To A Fourteen Year Old

"You need to worry about
getting into a good school,
so you can find a good job,
so you can be successful,
so people will like you,
so you can be happy"

in an auditorium with
two adolescent bloody knees
stinging from the car exhaust
from the street in a neighborhood
unknown to a boy just getting over the fear
of taking a bus to an unfamiliar part of town
in a gritty part of the city.  A pretty Latina girl
adivises with a smile to not pick up the pennies thrown
at him on the bus stop when in an unfamiliar part of town
trying to hide the two bloody knees being burned
by the car exhaust on a street
not like his own.