Intimidating, clad in baggy pants and hoods,
feral youths, congregating on our city streets.
Blades, knives hidden from sight
used as weapons or carried for protection.
Irrespective, razor sharp and deadly.
Body scars, wounds callously inflicted
at the hands of rival gangs.
Badge of membership or brotherhood,
bravery, in the face of urban terror.
Reasons given for this loathing, this hatred
maybe, colour, ethnicity , geography
or the thrust and cut of life.

Eyes skinned, follow each and every movement
Predators, excited by the smell of blood.
Aroused by the chase the kill.
Life and death, vested in their leaders,
Youths - born old- embittered, encallused,
hardened by grief, unresponsive to tears.
For, life on the street means you cut or die
so freedom, for the youth of our cites
is banishment, a body-bag or coffin.