Black Boys

Black Boys
by Latorial Faison

For so many of our brief
years, we built our hopes on

dreams, energetic and
smart, gifted with heart, so

much passion, too much love
for life, but our lives were cut

short, our teen-aged Black 
manhood cut too short, too

soon; it is impossible to
realize, any more, the dream,

to fearlessly hoodie up our
heads in winter, to walk

southern, American suburbs
in early springs without

threat to any man or beast,
just kids with candies, sodas,

and teas. There will be no
junior and senior proms

for us, no caps, no gowns,
no senior pictures, no pomp

and circumstance for parents
to see, no new excitement

or reservations of going off
to a college town, our dreams

of higher education now shot
down in us; every hope and

wish, too many times have
come to this, too many Black

boys overtaken, not mistaken,
by darkness, left dead, robbed

of life in our infant beds, by a
Jim Crow, who keeps rising

from the racist dead, our young,
Black, innocent blood to shed.

© Latorial D. Faison. All rights reserved.

"Black Boys" was published in About Place Journal, Volume 2, Issue 4, 1963-2013, A Civil Rights Retrospective