Vicious Cycle

his family tree consists of drug dealers
rapists,prostitutes,thugs and killers
based on these we avoid him
like a deadly disease
we write him off
refuse to give him a chance
his only option is to turn to crime
like his ancestors before him
it serves him well
until the day the law catches up
he is charged in court
sentenced to do time
we all believe
a stint in jail
will deliver him from hell
but on the inside
he meets badder men
learns the tricks
to be even more ruthless
it is ironic when he leaves jail
paroled for good behaviour
back on the streets
he is in the company
of seasoned jailbirds
who accept him
make him feel human
and in no time
he meets a woman
a woman of easy virtue
a prostitute
they fall in love
make babies
perpetuating the family tree
years later
father and son plan a robbery
mother and daughter make money
peddling their flesh
and drugs too
the vicious cycle
that is his family tree
goes on and on




Poetry by Mike
Read 814 times
Written on 2006-12-19 at 13:39

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tony legba
Okay, this is a story rather than a poem. If you added a metaphorical depth to it, then you would have a poem, and a good one.

For example,

his family tree consists of
drug dealers, rapists,
prostitutes and thugs,
killers of life's BRANCHES,
based on these we avoid him
like a deadly BARK disease etc.

By working the exteded metaphor, the poem suddenly has a thinking process, not just a moral, which could be put in two lines: bad produces bad, a rotten seed from rotten fruit.

You have more depths in you than you show!
2006-12-19