"Now I Wanna Be Your Dog"

If I live in cleanliness, purity and light, maybe I'll be reincarnated as one of my next-door neighbors' dogs. Then I'll be brushed, bathed, fed, walked and loved.

Actually, the next-door neighbors' dogs have much nicer lives than most people on our block. Almost everyone seems to be unemployed. This widespread unemployment in Humboldt Park doesn't get calculated in reports on the economy, because most of my neighbors have been unemployed for more than 6 months -- of course, the convicted felons will most likely never be hired by anyone -- not even Wal-Mart or McDonalds. And nobody does anything about it, because convicted felons can't vote.

So then you have a 15 year-old kid slinging crack and supplementing the whole family until he turns 18, gets his first conviction as an adult, and spends his entire manhood unemployed, voiceless and angry.