I really liked 123rd Street by Willie Perdomo. To be honest, it was the only one of the assigned poems that I actually liked. I am not a big fan of poetry and I often have trouble interpreting poems. This poem, however, was different. It didn’t read like a poem, but rather someone trying to freestyle in a rap face-off on MTV or something. I liked how the poem had rhythm and rhyme. It made the lines flow smooth and sound like music as I was reading it out loud.
I also liked the poem because it painted a mental image of the speaker’s neighborhood for me. The speaker is a man who we know has financial problems. He lives in a lower class neighborhood full of children running about and playing with one another. Somewhere in the background the sound of church bells is also heard. I also understood that his neighborhood is not very safe from the lines mentioning bullets bouncing off stoop steps in the neighborhood and “drug posses†looking to start fights. As a poor man living in a poor neighborhood, he probably has to steal to make a living-“money that aint mineâ€(15). The speaker seems to be stuck in a hole. He wakes up to the same thing every day with no hopes of a better future. He is a poor man, living in a poor neighborhood, stealing to make a living. His life is routine for him, and he knows exactly what the next day will bring before it comes.        Â
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