Slam Dance Jean Poem by Raj Dronamraju

You let it all rest on a paper thin promise
But tonight you'll go out with hope, a reported sighting of elusive hope
The same type of hope that leads people to believe in that which they cannot see and cannot touch and cannot sense in any other way

My friends had to carry you out
An arm over each victorious shoulder
Alive with the dual camaraderie of violence and tribal connection

And in the pit you felt alive
Egged on by posers standing on the outside
In those days, nobody got their fun from deliberate harm

Six poor youths sharing an all you can eat salad bar
Sweaty, drunk, no bad impressions of the world have formed in their heads
None of them deserve lives that will be diametrically opposed to tonight

If we had an example who was neither a man nor a woman
Jean wore a half-moon shirt and was instantly emulated
This place is sometimes used as a gym during the day and Jean is the only one visible from the bleachers

Relate to a scene whose worth was endangered from conception
Will one day disappear and be remembered in documentaries
Jean, did you not exist in the cold, hard light of serious self-reliance?