On the Corner

Posted by Minni

In the 'hood on the corner there are kids on the block running work to dope to the fiends with dark hollow eyes. They know "crack kills" but not literally. The fiends keep coming back with their last and only dollar asking for a rock. Crack heads from the 1980's and 1990's are still roaming the streets physically alive and breathing, but resembling zombies in their dirty, torn, oversized coats and threadbare pants stumbling around, skin and bones constantly pursuing their next hit. Because of them there will always be a demand. Because of them there will always be a supply.

The kids on the corner know how to cook crack and sell it, but they won't touch the stuff. It's a job.

Sometimes outsiders wonder why these kids aren't in school. Do they know that just by hustling fiends on the block one could make enough money to buy clothes and food and candy still go to the movies on opening night?

There's a kid in his drab middle school uniform walking down the street with dreams of nice cars but so far the school has given him tattered books. The dope boy rides by in a jag and the kid turns his head, eyes follow the shiny car down to the end of the block at he abandoned house.

The kid walks down Jefferson wondering if the Warren boys are going to beat on him today. He gets homeand calls his friend on the block. "Let's get money."

He's not going to school tomorrow.