![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/selfpublished\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Amazon-Book-Cover-Published-1.jpg?resize=314%2C499\" "\\"The")
Author<\/h2>\nJamell Crouthers<\/p>\n
A poet since the age of 13 who has a passion to write about experiences, life and social issues in society.<\/p>\n
A book about a young man named Robert who chronicles a poetic diary about his struggles through childhood of having a drug addicted mother and a deadbeat father. He is working his way through life learning a lot of rights and wrongs while being a role model to his younger brother. There’s one man who cared about him and his well-being, his guidance counselor Mr. Marble who molds him into a better man, is a role model to him and shows him a better way of life. Through the trials and tribulations of life, Robert chronicles his thoughts and experiences on various issues such as family, love, relationships, his neighborhood and growing into the man he wants to be. This book shows that men struggle in life and that sometimes we all need an ear to listen, a talk to clear our minds, a heart that is kind and warmth to comfort our souls. Robert finds a purpose in life for himself after the mistakes he’s made and he wants to prove to his family that the cycle of pain can be broken and that needing help and guidance from others doesn’t make him weak, it only makes him mentally stronger. A book that everyone will enjoy from beginning to end.<\/p>\n
Growing Up
\nI didn\u2019t grow up the way I should have,
\nTechnology has controlled every aspect of me.
\nTelevision taught me so much because mom wasn\u2019t around,
\nVideogames drained my brain cells and have made me lazy.
\nI was once athletic and loved sports,
\nBut depression took over and I no longer put effort into it.
\nMy mom had me when she was young with an older man,
\nA teenage mom with a father in his 20s drug dealing.
\nI didn\u2019t have much of role models to be honest,
\nBut that\u2019s another story for another time.
\nI don\u2019t care to go outside most days and chill with friends,
\nGrowing up into a man so early wasn\u2019t part of my plans.
\nHere I am in my 20s, living with my mom still,
\nSomehow we are still in this apartment, I used to wonder how.
\nMy mom has aged a lot because of the drug addiction she\u2019s had,
\nHoping and praying she makes it through a lot of nights.
\nI surely don\u2019t want to wake up and she overdosed,
\nBy the graces of hope and faith, she\u2019ll eventually get it together.
\nI had toys as a kid, I didn\u2019t play with them,
\nI cared about what was on my television instead of my toys.
\nToo busy watching music videos and watching movies I shouldn\u2019t have seen,
\nWalking out of my door into a cold world, making adult decisions at age 7.
\nMy childhood went goodbye when my dad left, my mom became depressed,
\nIt was me and my little brother fighting to survive from day to day.
\nSome days I can go to my grandmother\u2019s house to eat food,
\nAnd get a warm bed to sleep on for the night.
\nShe was really aging herself, in her 80s as she had a lot of kids,
\nI have a few aunts and uncles who are spread out around the state.
\nI\u2019d surely do my childhood all over again, too many bad memories,
\nMy innocence was lost when police sirens showed up to my building one night.
\nThe sound of gunshots rang through my hallway staircase,
\nA drug deal gone wrong, my homie died over money owed to someone.
\nI knew who it was and who shot my homie but there was neighborhood code,
\nDon\u2019t cooperate with the police, snitches get stitches, sad mentality.
\nThe police were here to solve a crime and here I was a teenager scared as hell,
\nOf the repercussions if I opened my mouth and talked.
\nLife in the ghetto, don\u2019t know how to deal with it, it takes a toll,
\nGoing to school and taking care and protecting my little brother.
\nHe eventually made decisions on his own and ended up in the streets,
\nIncarceration or death waited for him and now he\u2019s doing a few years in prison.
\nThe feds were watching him so he\u2019s far away in the middle of nowhere doing time,
\nNo time to drive or take a flight to go see him so he gets letters.
\nI couldn\u2019t write well for a long time, I speak with a lisp and I was illiterate,
\nI had to learn a lot of things on my own or have friends teach me.
\nTeachers passed me in school after so long,
\nJust so they can make their numbers and keep their jobs for next year.
\nGrowing up, nope, didn\u2019t get to do that really,
\nSo parents, do what you\u2019re supposed to and be there for your kids.
\nI love my mom to death but she really wasn\u2019t there,
\nI\u2019m her only son now, depression has deteriorated her mind, body and soul.
\nShe was once a sex symbol in the neighborhood and had a modeling career ahead,
\nLife took a toll on her all of these years and her skin has diminished off of her face.
\nI find happiness in eating junk food, watching television and playing videogames,
\nI never ended up on drugs, I guess seeing my mom on it, I couldn\u2019t bare doing it myself.
\nGrowing up was hard for me, I somehow made it to where I am,
\nTrying to get my life together, it\u2019s a battle one day at a time.<\/p>\n
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http:\/\/aquarianpoet1.tumblr.com<\/p>\n