Bored,
in my class,
using ball-point pens
the boys carve gang monikers into
the webs of their hands,
practicing for the day when they
can get real tattoos,
while the girls silently pass notes
to each other
when my back is turned,
surreptitiously speculating on
whom is the coolest
vato más firme

They think that
I am just another stupid adult
who knows nothing,
but I can see the future
and all I see
is enormous sadness
for future 22 year-old dead
or incarcerated gangmembers and
teenager mothers on welfare...

...whose children will themselves grow up
to make the same mistakes as
did their parents
before them,
and so on
forever:
in the darkest moments,
my heart sinking,
I fear that
this neighborhood
will always be
a shithole.

Another gangster off to jail.