Even if it was a belt, really. Even if their hood
didn’t have trees. Nobody wants to believe
any bullet fired around them wasn’t meant
for them if they survive it. If your God is truly
merciful, may you be blessed with every scar.
Suffered the diminished hearing in your left ear from
the summer Wu-Tang took you hostage. You know
the world wants to hollow you out because you
loved someone that was once your age and now
they no longer have an age. You don’t know shit
about flowers, but you remember the auntie that
bloomed once a year when the cops would finally
take her husband and his hands to jail for a week.
Elders are the only folks who take cruises because
they took a lifetime to get over crossing that much
water. If you are to keep religion, let the thin trees
with air-whip branches, but nothing tall enough
to swing from, be the totem. Let the man that
blocked your exit remain one man and not
every man that moves into a vacancy on your street.
Everyone has an idea of what their savior’s face
looks like but never wonders what the bastard
is holding behind his back. You haven’t been right
since your high school teacher told you to stop
showing off in class. Now you get nauseous
when your daughter aces her spelling test.
When you were younger, your father overheard you
talking to your white friends and told you
code-switching will kill you. You remembered
the day he took you
to work with him
and you offered back to him,
you first.