Yesterday, I wrote a poem about my brother being shot in January 2019. He was unarmed and shot while grocery shopping in Miami. Florida is a state that allows for people to carry guns and “Stand Your Ground.” The poem is a reflection on the ongoing state, vigilante, and gun violence against Black people in the United States. This is a picture of him as a young boy during the late 1990s in Miami, Florida.
My brother outside Toussaint L’Ouverture Elementary School in Miami, Florida during the late 1990s.
For My Brother
Society has failed you
mostly because it is afraid of you
Of your tightly curled hair
with cornrows that are
neatly braided from the hands of the
people who care for you
Society fears you
because you stand six feet tall
like your grandfather
and his father
your strength is part of our
intergenerational survival
Society has ignored you
because it cannot appraise
your humanity
your intelligence
your insight
This is a failure on society’s part
They don’t know
the brother
the son
the friend
that loves climbing banyan fig trees
at Morningside Park on temperate days.
They don’t know
the brother
the son
the friend
that adores eating friend griot with pikliz and bunun
while switching between Haitian and English or
what we call Henglish
They don’t know
the brother
the son
the friend
who loves swimming in the Atlantic Ocean
hoping to reach the edge of the horizon
What society thinks it knows is a false vision
of
all
the
men
that look like
you
All the Black men who just want to
cry
laugh
walk
read
pray
breath
and
live.
Copyright Edna Bonhomme, February 2019.