That's me, and the 2nd classroom of incarcerated teenage boys I spoke with today. Juvenile Hall. San Francisco. City Youth Now hosted me, together with Books Inc., in Opera Plaza. I'll read and discuss What Else But Home tonight, Wednesday, September 30, @ 7 PM. 601 Van Ness.

City Youth Now writes: "An individual's [child's] outcome is directly correlated to the level of education completed. 46% of the kids I met will finish high school or a GED. Less than 3% go to on to a 4-year college. 40% will become adult offenders - that means prison. 69% will be dependent on the system; that means public assistance, homelessness. Susan Stone and Brittany Heinrich, of City Youth Now, kept asking me how I was? Kept reaching out to touch my shoulder. I understand now they knew how gut wrenched I'd feel. The hard sadness. But the statistics mean that 60% will not be adult offenders. 31% will not be dependent on the system. Half full ?

These boys could be the brothers of our five bigger boys. I heard that, I saw it in them.

I asked the first class: "Who will love you? Who will care about you?"

"My moms," one wrote in my notebook.

Dante wrote: "When it all falls down @ the end of the day, alone in my room sitting in a corner thinking w/ all the lights off, I will love me, I will care about me the most. More than any man or woman ever will."

Dylan wrote: "The person I will trust most is me, because in the end I make my own decisions and only I will deal with the consequences. I can also trust my art teacher, who is my mentor and role model."

I asked the second group:"How would you change an 11 Year old's life?" - whom they met on a basketball court or baseball field.

Lopez: "What I'd do is give him a home where he can be safe and learn."

Wilson: "I would tell him to think about where his way of life is leading him and think if he still wants to still live that way."

Thich Nhat Han says that when he looks at a tree, he sees clouds and their rain, sunshine and summer warmth, the soil and all that made it. I know Dante and Dylan are taking care of themselves, but their loneliness is cut off from whom we are together. I was at the destruction of Sept 11th, I've written about that before. The people caught in the fire above used cell phones to reach out to their loved ones. So many who jumped held hands. Today, the boys and I spoke about what a "mentor" is. I kept saying that a mentor is someone who loves you.

This is a classroom while the teacher was introducing me:

These folk are Susan & Tiffany, and two teachers, between classes. Male counselors, big men, were also here. Two boys were taken out later in handcuffs, after I spoke. The boys and I lined up and shook hands. One promises to write. He asked me to be his mentor. I hope he does write, he got my email address:

Come to Books Inc in Opera Plaza tonight [Wednesday], if you can. I'll be in Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday, Book Soup in W. Hollywood & Vroman's in Pasadena.

The glass has to be half full.

Oh, & guards at a station in the hallway. Juvenile Hall is clean and sharp looking. Every door locks. Kids walk through the halls with their hands clasped behind their backs. It's prison: