Kids These Days (2015)
Light as a feather, stiff as a board
Anything could happen child, anything could be.
My child today: my brown boy one day brown man-child
Days after news of school shootings. Weeks after and before another Black person slain
Talked about emergencies, running to his aunt’s house that is close to his school, knowing how to get there
I respond in jest: yeah in case something happens, like what? like alien invasion, bad robots, things like that?
He says that is not real
it will be a man with a gun that causes me to run he says.
These days, is there still room for magic?
How do I let her in?
like a nervous alley cat?
Do I open a can of tuna, leave the door cracked and hope it will want my food enough to
wander in?
Please, I pray
For his sake and mine.
Won’t you wander in?