in the Chicago Tribune young women write letters to the editor explaining why gangsters are cool

when i was
younger
and the gangsters
were the coolest
i taught myself
to walk
with my feet
pointed out to the side,
like the gangsters do.

i watched the
gangsters laugh and
sell drugs.
i watched them
walk into classrooms
and curse out the teacher.
i watched as they
fell in the park
and in the street
and in the alley
and up alongside the curb.
and always
they were cool.

many years have passed
since the gangsters
and i
shared the same space
and lately I have been
thinking that my right foot
points too far out
to the side.

i try to point my foot
straight ahead
when i walk,
i try to have
good posture and
an easy,
relaxed,
gait.

i feel my foot
points too far out
to the right and
i no longer think
this is cool and
i haven’t been around
any gangsters
in quite some time
and i think
of being 14
and spending
hot Summer days
in the park and
my friend Tim
and his discussions with me;

“i can’t be in my
grade school crew
anymore.
i need to
make money.
i need to
be with people who
can help me
make money”.

Tim was cool
and i don’t recall how
he walked and i know
he decided on
spending time with
the Traveling Vice Lords
and i don’t know if
he ever made money
and don’t know if he
ever got to grow up,
or if he fell
in a park
in a street
in an alley
up alongside a curb.

it’s all really about
purchase
though, isn’t it?

the people who
help us earn money,
the time we trade
away for it,
the ground our feet
buys for us.
never do
we own
any of it.