Issue/Publication: Black Bleeds into Green

Web Links

a neighborhood boy

i live quite near to a boy
who kills people                                
        
he is fourteen years old

young enough for me
to remember when
he in the fifth grade
was a most wonderful poet

you could see his brilliance
shining with the dark energy
of a universe expanding

he neatly filled both sides
of the lined newsprint sheet
as he took the color black and
dressed it in all the possibilities
his ten year-old mind could imagine

it was magic and sleek
it was thunder and song
alive, powerful
and yes it was
beautiful

he wrote his poem
and then asked
to read his words out loud-
voice strong and clear
purposeful and steady

he shone brightly then
brighter than so many
of his classmates

some of whom
he may now shoot at
some of whom
may now shoot at him

youth together taking
the majesty of the night
and turning it into
sirens of misery and blood

i live quite near to a boy
who was born a poet
and now turns black
into the sound
of semi-automatic rounds
clattering across the mall
a pop, a whistle
a death wheeze
a mother’s sob’s
a tear dropped into oil

who was it then
who taught him black
as nothing but
caged and uncaged
field holler, whip groan
bar clang, lock nod
shake em up
shake em down
crack that back
bend and spread

who took his smooth obsidian
and ground it into gunpowder

devorah major