The structure of the poem “We Real Cool” relates an uncertainty of the identity of these pool players. There is some conflict, or some confusion, in how they are seen by Gwendolyn Brooks or how they see themselves. The rhythm of the poem draws us into the dimly lit, smoky pool hall, and we are immediately told that this is “cool.” These boys have fun in their relaxed lifestyle, no school or work to get up for in the morning, just staying out all night drinking and dancing. Their life is desirable, we think, until the poem ends. “We die soon.” Our perception is flipped, and we see the difficult lifestyle of inner-city kids, a vision in agreement with Bobby Womack’s Harlem. He creates an image of a dangerous place, a ghetto that is difficult to break out of. Womack also comments on the institutional formation of ghettos in the line “The family on the other side of town would catch hell without a ghetto around” – the upper-class inhabitants of Manhattan or any city like New York, look down on the ghettos, but it is their control of government and finances that creates the ghettos. This alternate view of cities, the lower-class and, in Harlem, the black perspective, is present anywhere: “In every city you find the same thing going down, Harlem is the capital of every Ghetto town.”