Mickenzi Schank Journal 2

            Before the poem was read, based solely on the title, I guessed that the poem was about what group of teens did for fun in their free time.  The first two lines confused me a little; I was not sure what to make of them other than the obvious, that seven people were playing pool at a place called the Golden Shovel.  But the lines “We/Left school. We/Lurk late,” made me change my thoughts.  I began to think that this group of people was up to no good.  I also suspected that they may have been involved in a gang, because of the line about shooting strait, but I was not sure if it was referring to the use of guns or if Gwendolyn Brooks was still talking about them playing pool.  The lines about singing sin and thinning gin convinced me further that this group of kids was a group of delinquents.  I figured that the line with “Jazz June” was referring to jazz music, but I was unsure of the significance it had to the rest of the poem.  For me the last line in the poem had the most significance because I was almost positive that Brooks did not intend for it to be taken literally, instead I took it to mean that the lives of the members of this group would be short not because they would end soon but because their lives would be empty and unfulfilled.  I found that I had difficulty understanding the poem while I was trying to analyze each line individually.  I had no actual understanding what the poem was about until I heard it read all together.  Also, I liked listening to the audio clip where Brooks was giving background on the poem; it helped me to better understand the reasoning and meaning behind the poem.  My favorite thing that she said was did not stop to wonder why the boys were not in school but rather how they felt about themselves for what they were doing.  The reason I liked this was because it changed my outlook on the poem.  I originally thought that the poem was written to mock the poor choices of these boys but rather to look at life through their eyes.  The other thing that I would not have realized without Brooks commentary was that the word June was used to represent the establishment.