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having some time off from work this week means that i have a little more brain space for poetry. I’ve been revisiting and revising this piece all week.
mother(ing in the)hood
© 2020 by margaux delotte-bennett
“It was another fear, a fear that the child, in challenging, the white world’s assumptions, was putting himself in the path of destruction.” – Baldwin (1962) Letter from a Region in My Mind
I’m the mother of a moving target
because their imagination can’t see
my black boy’s beauty
my black boy’s bounty
my black boy’s birthright
to a life
untethered and unrestrained
you can not whitewash my pain
I have not trusted the police
to secure and protect a damn thing
in years
there are hardly enough tears for the fate
my beautiful black boy would face
in their grips
like sand through fingertips
(this is not a baseless quip but matter of fact
reported and frequently unresolved/
too many of these truths
never make the evening news…)
his school fieldtrips to the stations
don’t make the fears subside
if we were to really discuss
what’s currently happening outside
my little black boy would wisely want to run
at only 6.5 rotations around the sun
he and his best friends are endangered
unlike a species
but most certainly at risk
so much more than your favorite retailers
day spas and cold brew suppliers
and who is really setting some of these fires?
(black people don’t burn churches and cars)
it is unclear
to both protesters and pundits
which tactics
will stop police violence
institutional racism
seeing black bodies as once and still property
easily disposed
but attention has been grabbed
and momentum towards justice
has always occurred
outside zones of comfort and
compliance
this moment is a ring shout
this time is a guttural scream
a chorus of breaths steadily rising free
as my black boy quietly sleeps tonight
and my black boy
oh so vividly dreams
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Black & Kinky Amongst Brown Waves 
Thank You Sister for penning this poem to share it. I used it this morning in a counseling session this morning with a brother who was sharing his experiences with the police and the criminal injustice system. The poem is passionate and timely.
Comment by revsalia June 8, 2020 @ 11:48 amThank you ❤️🙏🏽
Comment by arijit22f5995dd8 June 10, 2020 @ 6:44 pm