Someone to Hear

by Chino

Them days are over, mobbing around in gee rides, getting at females. Now, I sit in a cell watching my shadow, been down nine months and got a lot more to go. Two months until my birthday, then I will be the big eighteen.

I see memorized in my mind, it’s a blur. Seems like it was yesterday chilling with my boys. As I sit here and face maybe, twenty- ve to life, got me thinking who was really there. If I would have stuck to school and sports things would have ended up different. I still can’t believe it. I am here for a crime. It seems like it was my destination. Where I grew up, was all about gang bang, sell drugs. I thought that was normal.

I knew I grew up wrong when I walked into different schools, everyone looked at me like damn, I thought I was famous. Did sports, had good grades had it all. Blew it away on someone I don’t give a two shhh about.

It’s crazy, I don’t understand, I just want someone way on top to understand. I can’t change who I chill with because I was born into it. As I sit here and learn, it’s too late. People won’t give kids like me another chance, why? We took a life, now karma comes back. They try and send a kid like me to prison at eighteen, come on, I’m still a young man. Me doing more time in prison than I even lived. Doesn’t seem fair. What other way to go when this is all you know, no one taught me any better. I know I ain’t the only one this way. Parents been to prison, did gangs. There ain’t no other way, I can’t change now, it’s too late.

No one listens to kids like this, they just want to throw us away for something we did at a young age, damn. Going to prison will just make us worse. Do they even understand our shoes? No, they didn’t grow up hard like kids like me. It’s a war out there and in here. You put us in groups and call it a gang, I still don’t understand. Like I said, I was born into it. Where else can I go? People in my family went to prison for charges like selling drugs. I got taught wrong, I thought this is normal. This life was taught to me since I was in my Mom’s stomach.

It made me worse than my parents. I learn and understand it was wrong what I did and grew up but it’s too late. Life in prison is crazy to send an eighteen years old to. It’s failure, failure and failure, can someone on top please hear me? It’s a fast lane I grew into.

To people out there if you are reading this please do right. This life is easy to get into and hard to get out. Complete school and sports. It feels better to complete something hard.