We Real Cool

There's rarely a time that goes by that I don't have some poem singing in my head. All those years as an English teacher must have done a number on my memory. I was thinking about this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. It's always been a favorite of mine and so many students learned to love poetry when they saw this one:

               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.