#76 / We Real Cool

The pool players
Seven at the Golden Shovel

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

This poem is by Gwendolyn Brooks. Written in 1960. Pre-Rap. It is acknowledged as a masterpiece. "The pool players" is about another kind of ending, the ending of the "civilization" that precipitates around an individual person. You can listen to it here.

I have been thinking about the Maya Civilization, and about Greece and Rome. I have been thinking about our own civilization. Maybe we are not as cool as we think. 

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