Blog #5: Reflecting Upon, "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

When I first saw even the title of this poem, it annoyed me. "We Real Cool", annoyed me because I feel like it's supposed to be 'we're really cool', or something of that sort. But once I got over the title, I began to read the actual poem. At first I enjoyed the childish aspect it had to it, they're young and trying to have fun. They're listening to music, cutting class, having a good old time. But the moment I reached the last line, I was quite upset. The last line hit me like a falling brick, I felt extremely upset that these fun-loving people would say, "We die soon." Like, it may be true, which is also sad, but nevertheless, I felt bad. I had a lot of sympathy towards the unknown characters that believed themselves to have an early death. But also, I felt like I could relate. I think that I believed that I was one of them, it was truly upsetting though. In my head, I felt like maybe, well not that I wrote it, but that maybe I could have written it. I don't know, I just felt like I had a strong connection to this poem, and to me, that was very strange.
The progression of the poem was very strange, in a way. Things were happy and slightly mischievous, then everything kind of goes down hill. They're going out, hanging out, and then they say they're going to die soon. Like what is that?? Why would you say that? But, I get it. I understand that. I still feel like there's a lot missing. But how much could a short poem say, apparently a lot actually.