EDUCATION: In Los Angeles

IMPACT OF EDUCATION IN LOS ANGELES

Written by I, Juan Cerros

 

THE LOVE SONG OF J. MANUEL CRUFROCK

 

I THE SCHOOL YARD

 

Thrown into a school yard, a system of schooling

I didn’t have a voice

I didn’t even know I had a voice and anyways

My lungs wouldn’t be able to project a cry loud enough for anyone to hear if I had to let one out For whatever reason

But I didn’t need too

I was relaxed

            Living

                        I was a kid

I wasn’t a wilde childe, I can tell you that for sure

Never a bad mark to be put on any sort of “permanent” file

Everyday was the same

            Language and its arts started the day

                        Numbers and pie charts that made me think of McDonald’s apple pies, only because of the word “pie”

                                    And then the arts, it was always last and it was always most entertaining

But the same every day

Everyday it was the same

I’ll tell you what I did yesterday by telling you what I’ll do tomorrow

Although I will say that the only thing that changed was that slit on my forehead

It grew larger and more open pretty soon it was a large open whole

As far as my pre-pubescent body was concerned, all I was told was true and straight forward.

What good does it do me reminiscing about it now

 

II A ROLLING STONE

“when you ain’t got nothing, you ain’t got nothing to lose”

Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”

 

Took everything out of context in middle school

Everything

            Middle School

Problems came

            Teenage rage without a cage

I wasn’t looked after

            I was torn apart

They noticed me about as much as a turd notices exactly what anus it comes out of

            ALIENATED!

                        Complete and utter alienation

They weren’t paying attention

They were looking at the television instead of watching it

Listening to music before hearing it

Hearing music before they were listening to it

Shit

To them

I wasn’t even a bit of shit

Let me tell you now listener

            I was ISOLATED!

All of us from one another

I

Second to the left of each other

And everyday

Some shiny tool pricked and pricked away at my brain

            New perverse thoughts

            Homework set aside for later

            My grades slipped, wonder why

But they tried to catch me

Extended a basketball hoop to me     

            Maybe they do care

But they didn’t catch me

            I could of sworn they caught me…

Holy shit of Mother Mary jr. high was fucken awful

 

III The Lobotomy

 

I was a freshman nobody

            A sophomore somebody

                        A junior anybody

                                    A senior realized lobotomized

Politics

Philosophy

Literature

Science

Faith

Spirituality

Emotionful

Selfless

Faithful

Faithless

I was a naked lunch

            I was aware

OVERWHELMED

EYES WIDE OPEN

But education and structure and establishment society and morals, as Chief calls it, are all the Big Nurse

            Isn’t this ironic

Get this straight okay

For years I was taught to write a certain way then taught it’s okay to not write that way I was taught

            I would be shitted on years ago if I would have thought of a concept radical as thought

I was fed an “education” forcefully for years

It was all force fed now only to be left to rot

“Don’t swear”

            Cock shit to that

“Respect your elders”

            The ones that beat me, respect those

The ones that beat me…

The only elders I respect are the wise ones

The ones that’ll be gone next year

The ones that were fucked in the ass by a system of they once believed in and trusted

FUCKED for good

The Big Nurse did me good

It fucked me over without literally laying a finger on me but she literarily laid a good assfuck on me

            What could I do

I’m a senior

On my way out for good

I’m falling from the sky

            My wax wings  no longer wings or wax

It’s too late to do shit 

Now my scar has healed over and my brain has regained its frontal lobe

            But it’s all a little too late now

                        LAUSD

                        Neglected me

                        Censored me

                        Fucked me

                        Drove me insane… insane as all those other crazy assholes on the streets

They gave me a lobotomy

And I didn’t even see it coming.