They boys
They play fight and slap box
Use foul language and push boundaries
Tell mama jokes
Get defensive when they go too far
Them boys they often go too far
Trying to prove themselves
As men that they aren't yet
Sex self educated
Single parent raised
They boys
Often on the same wrong road as their brothers
Mothers cry for them
They boys far from home and freedom
Freedom got them detained
No one restrained them boys
So they are here
Teaching me about the hood
We escaped from
I gave my mother something extra
On mothers day
In memory of these boys I teach
Trying to reach and extract them
Their mentality reaches my tear ducts
Faces feature in my prayers
They just boys like I was once
I hope they become better men than I am now
Teaching poetry is often halted
When I question
Why are you here?
How long?
How does this feel?
Bars can't hold their dreams
I give paper
Teach them how to write
Others how to spell simple words
No, "girl" is spelled with an "I" not a "u"
Some too gangster to ask
Or write emotions
So they draw
I wonder if they draw what they hear
If that is the case
I hope they are listening
I got a story to tell
Not just a lesson to teach.
Not a preacher but this is spiritual
Parables
Divinity in hood abstracts
Them boys asked me to write about them
I didn't know where to start
Now I don't know where to end
See I teach poetry in a detention camp for boys
Twice a week I see them
Happy to see them smiling
at least when I come
Saddened I see them smiling
Hear them joking
About doing the same thing
That got them boys here
When they get out
Really just saddened I see them at all
Bars are not the place
For boys or animals
I never go to the zoo anymore
One of the boys said they are animals
I refuted him
Saddened that i even had to
I leave them tired cause I care more
Wish we had more time
Wish they had no time
They boys.
