BONEYARD

_________

 

Shovel the earth &

shovel it deep

 

Lower into the sepulchre

 

Surround the burrowed

space w/ lilacs & eulogies--

Family tears

 

Seal the earth up again

for a child had been

consigned to rest here

 

For another child

embittered

had shown him his most

glorified toy from youth

his lifelong phobia:

 

The receiving end of a 

pistol. The known face of doom.

 

Locked. Loaded. Blown.

 

Hate-crimes--engaging in war

head-on pale in comparison

to what keeps the silent bosom of the

Boneyard full w/

 

Fleeting 

          time

Fleeting 

          shots

       in

 

Places to learn

Places to play--High-risk

High-calibre consecration

Blasting away the future

to bleached bone.

 

THE BONEYARD AWAITS

YOUNG BLACK BODIES

AIMING THEIR GUNS

AT THEMSELVES.

_______________

W: 2.4.94

 

[ From the book Boneyard: Poems And Songs Of African Struggle And Survival In The

U.$., POOR Press, 2010 / Phoenix Voices Publishing, 2025. ]