END TO BEGINNING

by DEMONTE

I was raised in the 317, born in Cleveland city.
I saw all these dudes in the pity,
smokin and drinkin to their end,
gangsta thug play tryin to fit in,
but the end is where most begin,
change their life around to win,
but on this road to success some will be injured, maybe even die,
but if they believe in HIM they will fly.
thats why I say some should start their lives from the end
to make a new beginning.

I knew a guy when I was young. He was screwed up in the head. He was one one of those types of people who knew right from wrong, but he always did the wrong and told me and my friends to do the right. Like one day, me and my friends were riding our bikes around the block, and we saw a group of dudes jumping this one guy, but we knew that the guy was joining that gang because you have to be jumped to get in a gang. So the guy finally got up and it was him who told us not to do wrong. Then it was weird, right when he got off the ground, he looked up straight at us and then started limping towards us. When he finally was in front of us, he said don’t ever join a gang.

Me and my friends were like why is he telling us this and he just joined a gang, but we all said nothing. I knew he was a good person playing gangster. I also knew that getting jumped into a gang is not all you have to do to get in a gang. You also have to prove yourself, that means you have to injure or kill someone. I wondered to myself would this guy who tells us not to do wrong kill or hurt someone. Two days later, I heard my mom screaming on the phone, and I was pretty sure that she was getting bad news on the phone. When she got off, I asked her what’s wrong. She said the guy who always told us to do good not wrong had to prove himself to the gang and he tried to shoot another person in a different gang but instead he got shot in the head. He was in a coma for six weeks before he finally woke up.

He could not work the right side of his body that well, and he stuttered a lot. He had to do 6 months of physical therapy, and he was wheelchair bound for a while, and when he came out of the hospital, he was a different person, not physically but spiritually. He was totally into Christ and all throughout the neighborhood he would speak of God, and people listened. He changed my hood. He died going into that hospital and came out the hospital born again. He started his life from the end and made a new beginning.