HPAC Young Writers Review Volume I | Page 13

SINS OF THE FATHER You tell me I’m beautiful, and yes I can see The beautiful, cut diamond deep inside of me. You make promises to be better, and they bore like a drill. You tell me with hard work so I can pay your bills. I don’t want to give in to you, as hard as you try Because now and forever, you will bleed me dry. Success requires effort, and if I gave none, If I were to run from my moment in the sun, What would you do? How would you live? Knowing your lifetime commitment has nothing to give? I would love to leave you helpless, and not be all that I could. But honestly, I know in my heart I never would. W Because I want myself to be rich and famous, too. But I refuse that life if it comes with you Dad. SOMEWHERE NEAR HARLEM NIGHTS hen three teenagers do something together, it never goes according to plan, and never will. This I discovered the way most teens do, through experience. I tested this natural law on one cold October night, when my 2 schoolmates, Jesús, Adrian, and I decided go see Hamlet performed by a travel stage group on 35th street, in Manhattan. The trip was originally for high school Seniors only, but there are perks to being a teacher’s pet. Although we came with the school, after the show we broke away from the group, improvised and wandered the streets aimlessly afterwards. How could a late-night stroll go so awry? Perhaps we’ll know if we look at it like a math problem: School MetroCards that expire at 8pm + a play that ends at 10pm + one hour spent wandering the streets - the intelligence of four foolish boys = one long night. The three of us knew each other from our time living together in the same dormitory at our boarding school. There was Adrian, who was an especially nice person, a good friend, and wore his sexual ambiguity like a superhero cape. He was fun to hang around, but some of the weirdest moments in my life were connected to Adrian. And then there was Jesús, who