The converting

“… You a newspaper writer?
You little Black Boys… are nothing
but hoodlums in training at best, let’s be realistic.”

She laughed (his teacher) as he
cried:

His feelings weren’t
spared –
but he endured
the vollies
against his
self worth with
dignity
intact.

What she and others
did not conceive
was this
Black boy
was converting
that was which
was weaponized
to destroy
into his fuel?

(Decades later) An Author and he did it twice
to let em’ know
that he wasn’t
with the shits
(as his Auntie used to say).

It is Critical that I eRase This Foolhardiness (CRT)

See what I did there?

This Black Boy wouldn’t bend.

Indoctrinated with the falsity of inferiority, but the seed was planted in a soil in which it could never germinate, a love gifted from above.

By the way… That Black boy be me.