Parsons Avenue | Teen Ink

Parsons Avenue

November 20, 2012
By Malanie GOLD, Blacklick, Ohio
Malanie GOLD, Blacklick, Ohio
16 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!” ~ Theodore Roosevelt


The beginning of the bottoms
Where the dirty poor live
Where they steal and gangs are power
Where drugs are food and liquor is water
I am disguised as one of them. A teenage girl walking home from a rundown school
As I walk I look around, fearing the danger but wanting to know
I catch sight of an old man, sitting by a dumpster
A bottle is clutched tightly in his hand and his eyes look down
He’s spent his whole life with a bottle in his hands, drunk and alone
A sadness I’ll never understand lays heavily on him, chaining him to the blacktop
I watch as a few young men pass him. He flinches and looks anywhere but at them
He’s been beaten I’m sure, because he is weaker than them and cannot fight back
I hug myself, and walk on
Pittbulls snap at me, held back by chain-link fences
They have long bloody scars from fighting one another, to please their owners
I read somewhere they’ll do anything for their humans
Even die
I walk on
Little children play in their filthy yards. A baby with chubby legs stumbles out by the road
I pick him up and set him in the boundaries of his fence
His fate is going to be here. He will grow up here and live here and be here and stay here
I walk on
I’ve seen enough of this place, a few streets down the road from my own home
Where there are clean people and loving families and people with futures
I leave this place and feel completely blessed
Because I can I will
Walk on.



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This article has 2 comments.


Malanie GOLD said...
on Nov. 26 2012 at 8:03 am
Malanie GOLD, Blacklick, Ohio
16 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Wow, thank you so much! It means a lot. :)

on Nov. 24 2012 at 1:46 pm
L7SquariaN GOLD, Madison Heights, Virginia
15 articles 0 photos 32 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love, Life, Loyalty, and Living Long Like Legends. That's that L7.

Very powerful. I can't tell if you made this up, or if you actually experience it; it's that convincing.

My favorite segment was that on the old man. Your word choice undoubtedly accomplished its goal of envoking a sense of distress and helpness.

Also, when I read "walk on", up until the last one, I assumed it to be involuntary and resentful, considering the misfortune and brutality accompanied with doing so, but upon finishing the poem, I realized that the character (perhaps yourself) continued to "walk on" with strength and optimism, knowing they weren't bound to that hardship.

In short, this is a remarkable piece, with excellent diction, description, breaks, and metaphors. 5/5