Black Boy, Become Human Again
By Jaelin Jones
Winner of the 2025 Poetry Award
rest in power bell hooks
Black boy, child:
You are bright, sensitive, kind.
Greatest acrobat, Anansian son,
giver of belly laughs and surprises, coos and kisses for babies–
you help Gramma with small gestures.
You hold the miniature creatures and caress those average beasts with gentle hands.
They tell you
NO,
unthinking brute, THIS is the way!
THIS is who you are. Or at least, we will make it so. Walk like this, not like that.
Talk this way, but not that. Put that thing down, it will not do. Pick that up, it is made for you.
This is for you to choose, you must like this, not that. You must not act like that.
Do not be bright, so uncool! Do not be sensitive, so weak! Do not be kind, effete!
Do not be so soft, when so much trouble has been taken
to harden you, to condition,
to teach you what is only natural. Your gaiety must be caged–
your arms and hips must not sway too much! You must always show an ability to
dominate!
The home is not your realm!
You mustn’t take comfort in others’ affection!
Your hands must only be instruments of toil!
So you let your spirit sag,
dry up like an ephemeral lake, cracked and hardened. You suffer and hold those tears,
and sit beside humanity, ahuman.
You know there is much ridicule in being human: in being afraid,
in feeling anything at all, (the highwire emotions) save for lust, anger… (those hotwire ones)
But how else does one express
the feeling of moving about the waist– of using hands to hold and caress–
of needing to be held–
of wanting to pick up that babydoll–
of yearning to play without needing to control?
But how else–
without it bubbling over so much that you act out
so that you are then scorned?
But I know that you feel, like me.
Human under all that you are forced to be: wearing that lying, grinning mask,
shading your eyes, and hiding your cheeks. So take that off, cast all that aside–
dance and frolic freely! Play with your peers!
Find solace in the embrace of another! Make your home!
Let your palms be soft!
Rest under trees away from space in the sun. Allow yourself to love,
and be loved.
And to be human again.