Urban shootings mirror
wars on distant shores.
Drugs sales are up.
Civility is down.
Can get a job on the corner
faster than a corner office.
A college degree is six degrees
of separation from homelessness.
Sirens pierce the night.
A quiet evening is a treasure.
At dawn, we dodge bullets
on the way to school.
That doesn’t make the news.
No reporters on the scene.
They don’t know about our lives.
We are an alien world, a foreign land.
Separated by a socioeconomic barrier.
Break through, know about us.
Shirley Jones-Luke is a poet, writer and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Luke holds an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. Her work has been featured in ENUF, Creativity Ezine and The Skinny Poetry Journal. Ms. Luke is currently working on a manuscript of her work.
A Quiet Courage 