Ending This Cycle (To All The Young Men) Poem by Lady N

Whatever happened to going to school to let these teachers educate ya’,
To reading just for fun and to let that real knowledge penetrate ya’,
See nowadays we dropping out, ‘cause that life just aint for me,
Getting jobs to better our future, yet we still live in poverty,
“Not enough to eat at home”, little brother complains,
So he gotta do what he gotta do to kill them hunger pains,
He see his friends all making money, they stay stunting with that bread,
Talking about money, power, respect, started turning some wheels up in his head,
Not enough money coming in, so he can’t make ends meet,
Now brother posted up on the block, devoting his life onto these streets,
Found a new family that show him love, yep, lil brother done joined a gang,
And while he out there shooting, you at home ducking form every single one of them bangs,
“Thug Life” tatted on his chest, he’s been doing this for some years,
Rep-ing a gang he knows nothing about, fighting a battle that isn’t his,
He done gone and dropped out of high school, now he’s spending years up in the pen.,
But what makes matters worse is that it’s happening to most of our young men,
Black and Latinos especially, young men please take heed,
Because with everyone taking this route, whites seem to be the only ones to succeed,
And naw it aint a racial problem, although race is definitely involved,
It is a problem that effects everyone, so we must come together to solve,
Solve this problem that lies in front of us, and always remember first thing first,
That gang violence has taken so many lives, and without our help it’ll only get worse,
Young boys think they got the juice, when they got that gun up in their hands,
And with just one push of that steel trigger, they take the life of another man,
And if we don’t do something about it, the cycle will still go on,
Joining gangs to solve our problems, taking lives, so on and on,
We must come together to fight this problem, that is way too big to ignore,
Because if we don’t fight for what we believe in, then what the hell are we living for?