Common Themes in We Be Cool and Undertaker

At first reading, the poems We Be Cool by Gwendolyn Books and Undertaker by Patricia Smith appear to be very different. Upon examination, however, it becomes clear that both works share a common theme, based on urban gang issues that transcend the decades and generations that separate the writing of the two poems. 

The imagery in Undertaker is very graphic and explicit, evoking a clear mental picture of the violence of the boy's death and the depth of the mother's grief. The first line of the poem sets the tone powerfully, when Patricia Smith writes, "When a bullet enters the brain, the head explodes". This description of the boy's death in plain but disturbing language fixes the image of his death in the reader's mind, to be expanded upon as the undertaker reflects on the mechanics of reassembling the boy's face. Throughout the poem, small details fill in the image piece by piece, leaving the reader with a solid impression of all three characters, their personalities, and the part they play in the tableau. This is in sharp contrast to the minimal descriptions of We Be Cool. Other than the two lines that preface the body of the poem, nothing specific is said about the characters beyond their actions. Instead the imagery relies on the words chosen to describe those actions to create a vivid impression of young people drinking, fighting and dying in their gang lifestyle.