Somethin’ happened
Last night
to that boy down the block
They say his flesh began to rot,
Turnin’ dusk-deep
Like twilight
His melanin inhalin’
America’s black child birthright
And that night
The proverbs spoke to his momma’s yearnin
Clutchin’ the air for her baby’s return and
If she aint lyin’
Then that daughter saw the ancestors burnin’
Smotherin’ that mama’s screams
With the blood of
slavery revertin’
And see that mornin’,
God had caught the sun
set
with the glaze of fear
shadows over that boy’s fate
Couldn’t nobody find
not one single trace
Of that boy down the block
They say that boys now lost
And kids soiled in quicksand
Swim through rivers
upstream
For a boy who’d look just like them
Or for the face of Emmett Till
If hatred had scalped his soul
Before God could
But if tradition held true
Then they ought to find him layin’
dead in that ol’ Landfill
Next to a history book and
a suicide pill
And by noon
Cops came with flashlights gleamin’
Bullets tied loose around their necks
Chains followin’ the tracks they was weavin’
Ready to gut
Askin’ bout drug deals
And neighborhood schemin’
So,
Mamas passed with silent grievin’
Buildin’ walls
and prayin’ to God
that those cops ain't came
death dreamin’
But those cops aint stay long
Nah, they was gone like that boy’s name
And their sirens left wailin’ a sorrow
Not as loud as those mama’s tears
in a drunken sheer
Her soul was translucent
Death,
disappearance,
and denial crackin’ through the fog,
fragrant and fluent
In the black body’s shadow
That boy’s existence
Twisted
and trampled between
choked out obituaries
And freedom seized
(ceased)
Of the boy down the block
Of the boy who was black
Of that boy
We ain’t know the name
Of that boy
Could’ve been you
He was just a boy
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