Chapter 17: Bringing in the New Year

This Saturday, 7/31 at 6:30 PM on my show "LA Sounds" (from 5 to 7:30 PM streamed live on kzfr.org) I'll be reading chapter 17 from my story “Running From the Fire” how after my brother Richard and I survived a gang attack in Paradise Hill that I decided I needed to make a change in my lifestyle. I wasn't exactly sure how to do that but it didn't matter anyway because Uncle Sam made the decision for me by drafting me into the US Army.

Here's a poem I wrote for Cholo Robert who was shot and killed soon after the Paradise Hill incident:

Cholo Robert 

© 2004 Phillip I. Elkins

Hey baby / why don’t you see who’s at the door?
I’m busy / it’s probably for you anyway.
All right / I guess I have to.
Yeah, hey / hey, what’s happening?
This is /
This is for you, man./ Bang! / Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Five bullets / five holes in the head. / Cholo Robert is dead.
A mean bastard / Who I ran the street with.
No / not really mean. / But you could call him a bastard / I guess.
Crazy / ran the streets for years in East LA.

Always loaded / trying to be bad.
Cholo Robert / I remember you / like yesterday.
Let’s see / what did we do yesterday?
Oh yeah /we drank that cheap wine.
Crashed 1000 parties / fought, stole, cheated, lied.
Had a good time, I guess you would call it that.
Came very close to dying / thanks to you / Cholo Robert.
Always someone out looking for you. / You finally got it huh / how come / I ain’t /
surprised?

You dumbass / you messing with the big boys. / stealin’ their ladies /
you’re always alone. / Even with your friends, man, you were alone. /
Never made it nowhere. /
Lived your whole life / and died in El Sereno. /
Oh, man, what a waste.
Hell/ you were kind of a nice guy too / inside / somewhere. /

Cholo Robert / no, I’m not glad. /
I liked you / a long time ago. /
You saved my brother Richards life / one time /
when one of your crazy friends thought that Richard
was dissing him/
But Richard was deaf so he didn't hear your friend talking to him.

But you almost had us both killed / up in Paradise Hill. /
Twenty five guys / wanting to kill. /
And you had to go / and steal their girlfriend’s / wallets. /

Yeah / but you knew to run. /
We were drunk / trying to have some fun. /
Didn’t want to hurt any one. /
Too bad / you didn’t see the gun. /
Maybe again / you could have run. /
Maybe we could of have /
had some more /
fun.