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Brother In Crime

*“Listen here kid, have a seat.

Let me tell you about

The family.”*

 

You can choose your friends

But you can’t choose

Your family….

 

…and apparently you can’t choose

your career either.

 

This is dedicated to

my brother in crime

The younger brother

With stronger

Morals and values

Than mine.

 

The family is broken,

And your older brother is broke

And in the eyes of a distant father

You know we are both jokes

 

We are not prodigies

We are not straight A students

We are small town oddities

And some would say we are ruined

 

We were born into this life.

We were born into financial comfort

Bathed in upper middle class stability

Taught racism is acceptable as long

As we keep it to ourselves, and laugh

As if we are not serious.

 

We learned that as we grow up, dreams become schemes

 

We were raised believing we would succeed.

And success is defined by money.

 

The monetary system is god.

I will be the doctor

You will be the lawyer

And because the system isn’t flawed

We are.

 

Money is not good, money is god.

I’ve spent a lot of god on beer.

 

So when we watch our bloodline bicker

Like bad kids in sandboxes,

When we watch adults undermine

Each other’s “parenting skills”

Remember,

 

You did not chose this

You were born into this.

 

And as the age old argument

Of genetic versus environment

Rages on like arguments

Over furniture and kitchenware

Remind yourself

It’s not an argument.

Its your environment.

 

Today my little brother’s heart was broken

And his dreams were shattered like a

Malicious marriage

Divorced, and separated,

By god.

 

My little brother will not be an RCMP officer

And if he doesn’t know it yet,

This is the best thing to ever happen to him.

 

Just because your eyes aren’t apparently good enough

They have never stopped you from seeing right from wrong

They are wrong.

You are more then alright.

 

Cops are more crooked than the criminals they can’t catch

So whatever you do, don’t catch flack

For not having a backup plan

You turn 17 tomorrow, man…

Kid.

Be one.

For a kid can be anything.

 

You can race san dunes in the desert.

You can rebuild muscle cars and motorbikes.

You can make unique one of a kind furniture.

You can open a restaurant, even a bar.

You can be the next big sensation in Country music, or rap.

Or both.

You will live. You will smile

And you will make other do the same.

 

Brother, we can do anything.

Hell, when our parents die,

Miserable and alone,

We will inherit their throne

all of their god.

 

And we can take their god,

Design ourselves some superhero outfits

Break laws in order to fix them

We can grow and sell dope by donation

And make the difference

That neither our parents

Or the police

Are able to do.

 

I’m proud to share blood with you.

We are superheroes.

We are gods.

We are brothers in crime.

Request permission to use this poem
Written by
sean-banks
Canadian
Published
Apr 25, 2014
Lines·Words
96·505
Permission

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