Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) is committed to uplifting the voices of youth in advancing narrative change and transforming the youth justice system into a holistic model of care. As part of our work, in 2022 we invited young people to express their thoughts and ideas in creative form about the school-to-prison pipeline and youth justice system. We are now featuring the students’ work on our blog and in our newsletters and social media through February 2023. To protect the youth, some of the images of youth utilize stock images and are not the actual youth winners.
What Is Life?
by Desmond F. (Tied for 1st prize, Summer Slam Winner)
My life going from shooting guns to just trying to have fun… And just trying to get food before I am done
kids dying for just fighting…it’s a crazy world we live in, there’s no stop to the kids that’s getting popped
they got stuck in a mess
that they can’t reset
How do they reset? when they worry about the sun going down… in this stupid town
when gangs are all around
Like what you have to do to just be you
If you be you
You like being in a zoo people staring at you
You like…”What did I do?”
What do I do
to combat
the fact killings in this town all was come around
Kids run and hide and always try not to die
What do I do to get them not to cry?
As you can see, the world is bad
For the kids and the dad
I really feel bad for the times that some kids don’t have
What’s your story,
what would you do to get the kids off of the Bottom of the government shoe
what would you do
This world is wild just like the Nile
Kids don’t know what path they will go all they can do is hope
What would you do if the government says “all kids are from the hood” even if they are bad and good too
What would you do if kids need love and need a hug
What would you do when kids try their best but still get in some mess
What is mess’d is the government giving the kids a test
What is a test
Like the ones in schools, if you don’t pass school the government says you a fool
Schools are like jail, if you don’t pass that, you going to fail
How would you fix the mess when the kids reset
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