Poetry by Will Diggs
Every Black boy is
just one circumstance away
from becoming a man
Every Black man is
just one crisis away
from reverting to boyhood
Peep this
the father loves the boy
but cannot tell him
and so when he hits him
leather to skin
he cries too
the words welling up in his eyes
but never spilling
the boy cannot take this version of love
and leaves his father’s house forever
frightening as the road may seem
he travels in search of a home
that will cause no harm
the father tells himself this
as consolation for lost sons
the boy is not born a man
could not possibly be
for the patron of growth is time
too soon will he learn her lessons
have the world in his hands
and also on his shoulders
he will not know how to bear the weight
and there will be no Atlas handbook
so each time strife strikes
the boy will remember the pain
of his father’s lashings
and he will feel double the sting
growing stronger having been through so much in so few years
with such a strong-handed father producing the best man
that he can
this elementary logic and nothing else
