Beautiful Black Boys

Beautiful black boys in cages

The rage is

inevitable

Perpetual pain will only breed

Less self control

(And they know dat)

Love and stability

Become impossibilities,

Ego on ten

Even when

He's not so sure how to

Define "family" or "friend"

Black boys lost

And the cost?

An unbelievable currency

Paid for

In broken dreams

Stolen since

elementary school classrooms

"problematic"

For asking regular shit

Like "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Never to be seen

But seen always as a threat

And the tears of their mothers

Soak their pillows

We forget

It makes no sense

Yet it's evident

Through national statistics

Ballistics and endless evidence

Evidently constantly

Pointing to the Melanated men

I hate it and

long to see a day when we

Free all the beautiful black boys in their cages

Turning new pages

In our collective history

Ending finally the mystery

Of who it is we're meant to be

Alysia Sanders