We Real Cool Mortality Quotes

Perhaps it's alcohol that's will kill them. Maybe Brooks is predicting lives of alcoholism for these young men based on the fact that they are drinking and have left school. One of the reasons this poem is so powerful is that the speaker is able to create a vivid and provocative image using very little language.

The speaker says, "Die soon," instead of the more conventional "Die young." How is "Die soon" different? How soon? Is she referring only to these seven young men, or a larger group of people?