by TruthNPoetry, San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, CA
It’s the craziest thing
Or should I say, “thang,”
Peer pressure, to love myself lesser
By joining a gang,
I object on conscious grounds
So I continue to abstain,
It bothers me deeply
So many children are slain,
So I ain’t down to ride
I don’t want to hang
I’m only 12 and continuously
Have to explain, “nah, I don’t bang,”
I reject the appeal
Of living in fear
Like Tupac
I shed so many tears
Intellectually I fail to grasp
This fatal seduction,
Of willful participation
In self-destruction,
Blindly pledging allegiance
To tribal violence and
Glamorizing the use of drugs,
Abandon my moral compass
Adopt the values of a thug,
Use gang signs to communicate
Convey my aspiration with a shrug,
Gangs infest and bleed
Communities like bed-bugs
Fascinated with the idea of
“Tossing slugs,”
Nationwide youth denied
Parental attention or a hug,
To join a gang would be
A deadly self-infliction,
To paint one’s self into
A corner with restriction
To create and exploit hostile
Sub-cultural frictions,
Constantly weaponizing your homies
Ignorance and suspicions,
Forced to assault one group
To benefit another,
Ask to choose the gang over your
Father, mother, sister and brother,
To be identified and ostracized
By your tattoos and color,
Gangs kidnapped your dreams
Your academic goals will be smothered,
They never tell you
Your mind is a precious jewel,
In the gang you’ll live
By social pathetic rules,
Routinely you’ll be suspended
For fighting in school,
Knowledge of self creates opposition
So ignorance becomes cool,
Join a gang requires you
Deliberately to “act a fool,”
You’ll be expected to
“Put in work,” I mean, “do crime,”
You have a 99% percent chance
Of dying or serving time,
Selling drugs, incorrectly, is called
“Hustling” or being on your grind,
Noble ideas such as humanity
And empathy will be erased from your mind,
Gang members pretend to be family
Until you’re in a legal bind,
When the 5-0, get your M.O.
You won’t be hard to find,
Their eggs over easy to get in
Hard-boiled to get out,
Acting felonious and homicidal
Is exactly what it’s about,
This one guy compared his gang
To the “Boy Scouts,”
He assumed I’d bite
Like a fresh water trout,
Said tatted tears were like badges
Showing I had street clout,
He insisted each had uniforms
Colors and oaths,
Learned how to hunt,
Set fires and use ropes,
In the middle of the desert,
He tried to sell his boat,
He kept trying, and
I kept saying, “Nope,”
When I refused to gamble with my life
He pulled other tricks up his sleeve,
He got mad, started spinning fairytales
You wouldn’t believe,
Goldie Locks and the three bears
Ali Baba and the forty thieves,
Even angrier when I ask
What do gangs achieve?
He became loud and animated
I think he forgot to breathe,
Shocking but statistics show
They always target teens,
As they feel we all have image issues
And low self-esteem,
Went as far to compare
His gang to a sports team,
See what I mean by crazy who
Would choose a nightmare over a dream?
Trust me gangs are as
Poisonous as they seem,
Behind prison bars
The grass is never green,
We should all say, “Nah”
To gang life and here’s why,
As they say, “Keeping it one hundred,”
The benefits are all a tragic lie,
There is absolutely
No silver lining in the sky,
If you join kiss your
Freedom and future goodbye,
As the rewards are
Fatal lows and suicidal highs,
Neighbors held hostage by gangs
As guns are in great supply,
In a nutshell death,
Prison or watch someone die,
Gangs have ant-social schemes
And tunnel vision,
To a rational person its
An uncomplicated decision,
In short, the toxic masculinity
Of gangs is a subcultural “ism,”
Like a computer virus
Run-a-muck,
Like quick sand without a rope
Once you’re in you’re stuck,
To join a gang is essentially
Saying you don’t give a “huck,”
The price for “non-thinking”
Cost more than a buck,
Not to say some members
Aren’t morally conflicted,
The negatives are far
Worse than predicted,
Frankenstein and vampire like savagery
Not optional but explicit,
You’ll become Humpty Dumpty
After his great fall,
Your common sense impaired
By designer drugs and alcohol,
Those you love will be
Afraid and appalled,
Once you substance abuse
You know what’s next?
Alternative realities
And unprotected sex,
You’ll act on impulse,
Reason you’ll start to reject,
Gang tats on your face trying to earn
The very opposite of respect,
The streets you vandalize and pillage
Will become your hood or set,
A straight path to a dead end
But you haven’t realized it yet,
Every day is a “who done it”
But here’s the twist,
Your individuality will
Sadly vanish in their midst,
And you’ll agree by proxy
To put your health at risk
Rewired and programmed to
Talk with your fist,
I’m sure like myself, joining a gang
Wasn’t on your bucket list,
I wrote this poem so that
You don’t have to suffer this,
I hope you get the picture
Is there anything I missed?
Stay in school
There’s power in EDUCATION
“To be or not to be”
Is your choice without hesitation,
Please share this poem with every teen,
In every school all over the nation,
So the next time you are
Approached by a gang,
You too can say, “Nah, I don’t bang.”