"Home of Brotherly Love?"

By Leshia Evans

The welfare line never shortens,
The homeless never have a true home, but isn’t Philadelphia the home of brotherly love?
Hold on wait there’s more,

Crack fiends laying out on the floor
Little kids wishing they had more
What is the purpose of a father their never around anymore
Mothers selling their bodies thinking it’s cute
Until they meet the wrong dude
Whispering a little something sweet in your ear
Got you forgetting to ask that vital question of protection
As he slips away you pray that the test you took today came back negative
Praying to god that he ain’t leaving you with a signed note of confession
The devil himself slips away in the mid of night trying to frame any black man in sight
We call these men cops but they are the ones really selling the rocks
Darkness covers this whole city, home of the free, are you kiddin’ me
I mean realistically, the cop sees a black man walking they think just because he’s black, he’s just another man selling crack,

I mean the future generation is being lost in translation as they come up with there own
interpretation of their home, man this world is so wrong,
As a little girl walks across the street and she is blind sided by the bullets that hail almost as much as rain, I mean this city’s insane,

P is for the privilege we lack,

H is for the hell that we live in,

I ,I ,I will go crazy if another little boys gets shot as he reaches in his pocket to pay off yet another crooked cop,

L is for the loneliness of our youth,
But also,

L is for the love that fathers lack because they find it more important to sell crack.

Y , why is this question that I have for you as I sit at yet another funeral of my dearly departed, as these tears fill my eyes I will only cry physically because mentally I must stay strong for as the future generation I have to come to a realization that a untied city is just a figment of my imagination unless you and me as a common people come to see that we are this city and must take responsibility and stand up for us, only then will I let this pen touch this paper and say that I truly live in the home of the brace and the land of the free and I pray to god that you’re not only listening but also hear my message, Because I want to grow up in what could truly be, the city of brotherly love.