We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Pool Players. 

Seven at the Golden Shovel.



We real cool.
We
 Left school.

We
 Lurk late.
We
 Strike straight.

We
 Sing sin.
We
 Thin gin.

We
 Jazz June.
We
 Die soon.

______________________
Rhyme scheme: AABBCCDD


Compare with this poem:

A "Golden Shovel" poem -- a poem based on the Brooks' original. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/detail/92023

Here's Terrance Hayes writing two poems around Brooks' original. And it's amazing!

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/55678

And here is Joy Harjo's version: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/92063

Here's a different kind of a version that I did:

We Eighteen
(Gary Barwin)

We lurk

                        We cast dark

We sing

                        We cauldron morning

We glitter seas

                        We hook

We eye

                        We insubstantial blue

We arrow

                        We do

We die soon

                        We fat black heart

We do not do

                        We speak hard

We cool

                        We brindled wing

We blood mouthfuls

                        We ran raven sweet

We through