We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we

heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then

we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling;

and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead

men that we reaped.

—Harriet Tubman

Young adolescents in our prime live a life of crime,

Though it ain’t logical, we hobble through these trying times.

Living blind: Lord, help me with my troubled soul.

Why all my homies had to die before they got to grow?

—from “Words 2 My Firstborn,” Tupac Shakur

I stand on the stump

of a child, whether myself

or my little brother who died, and

yell as far as I can, I cannot leave this place, for

for me it is the dearest and the worst,

it is life nearest to life which is

life lost: it is my place where

I must stand….

—from “Easter Morning,” A. R. Ammons