Latorial Faison

Latorial Faison
 
Black Boys

For so many of our brief
years, we built our hopes on

dreams, energetic and
smart, gifted with heart, so

much passion, too much love
for life, but our lives were cut

short, our teen-aged Black
manhood cut too short, too

soon; it is impossible to
realize, any more, the dream,

to fearlessly hoodie up our
heads in winter, to walk

southern, American suburbs
in early springs without

threat to any man or beast,
just kids with candies, sodas,

and teas. There will be no
junior and senior proms

for us, no caps, no gowns,
no senior pictures, no pomp

and circumstance for parents
to see, no new excitement

or reservations of going off
to a college town, our dreams

of higher education now shot
down in us; every hope and

wish, too many times have
come to this, too many Black

boys overtaken, not mistaken,
by darkness, left dead, robbed

of life in our infant beds, by a
Jim Crow, who keeps rising

from the racist dead, our young,
Black, innocent blood to shed.
 
 
 
Latorial Faison is an African-American writer born and raised in rural Virginia. She is a graduate of UVA and VA TECH. Faison’s poetry and nonfiction have been published in Southern Women’s Review, Blackberry Magazine, Poetry Quarterly, Chickenbones, Red River Review, Kalyani Magazine, and elsewhere in the U. S. and abroad. She has authored a children’s book and five books of poetry. Faison currently lives in South Korea with her husband and sons and is an Assistant Professor of English at Sejong University.