A Negro, In The City Poem by Maya RichardCraven

A Negro, In The City



A Negro, in the City

This one's to the Negro boy
the negro in the city
maybe I'm your Mama
Boy
maybe I'm your biddy
probably your woman
spouse
sister or
your friend
or maybe just
a neighbor pal
childhood
been playing at the park
since ten

This one's to that too dark girl Sapphire
angry with color
a blackened tongue
caste an ugly shade of ostracism
thinks she ain't worth none
because her black screams motherland
matches burnt brown toast
can't be hidden, at all
so black that she gone ghost.

This one's to the light-skinned Lynn
the princess crowned fairest of them all
who pass down the street
head high
false confidence
false hair
false lashes
she too good for us
full negro stock.

And this one
be for her mama
The mama I gon' be
when I worry
‘bout my own
little black boy or girl
who I'll ‘ventually
turn free

Will my black boy
drop into a sea of rainbow colored candy?
Will my black girl
try to run
free
escape face down
like other lil' black chillin'
with his pants down low
with her blood drenched
black hoodie?

This one's for my mama
the mama I'm gonna be
the mama who gon' taught me
when
and
how
a Negro
should run
free.

But mostly,
this one for my papa
the papa I ‘ll ‘ventually marry
the papa who ‘gon raise my sons
teach ‘em to-
comb your Afro
brush your teeth
always look cleaner than clean
never talk back to the police
by the age of ten,
little black boys
need understand
police brutality and
when
and
how
a Negro
boy
should run
free
in the city.

Monday, August 25, 2014
Topic(s) of this poem: racism
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Gajanan Mishra 25 August 2014

police brutality, good writing, thanks,

0 0 Reply
Aftab Alam Khursheed 25 August 2014

Freedom is the living instinct well penned thank you

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