BRYAN WINSLOW

KID LOGIC My son came to me one day And asked me “Daddy, if I get older what can I be?” and before I answered him I corrected him Told him that the question isn’t “if” but “when” you get older And he boldly told me that I was wrong because Ryan in his class told him, that his mother said that it’s not always a given To see another day if you’re young, black, smart and male So he had now taken the stance that his tomorrows are not promised Thereby making it "if" as opposed to when And I smiled And frowned Because this wonder before me, God’s creation Had taken the time to think and criticize what his father had said to him And he came to him for wisdom Yet the answer that would have to given could not be shortened There had to be a lesson and so I told him that He could walk on water if he believed in himself Because the Word told him that he could do all things And accomplish greater things than Jesus had done With His assistance and strength That whatsoever he fancied in his mind to design He could fashion He asked me about the young boy in Florida Who he was sure had heard the same from his father before What about Him? And I told him that though I had no answer I would do all I could to make sure that that was not how his story ended That his mother and I conspired on the wisest way to guide our seeds And we would depend on the Father to grant needs and wants And abandon those things that haunted us as children So that our children never knew abandonment or poverty Like her and me Yet he inherited the very best of our unified we So he could be whatever he wanted to be Told him that I told him this frequently As I regaled him with stories of our history And memories of a strong community As opposed to the Brothers Grimm bedtime stories And instilled thoughts of peace, love and justice in him And his siblings And I wanted to tell him that contrary to what Facebook tells him He is not Trayvon Martin Like Martin wasn’t Malcolm and Malcolm wasn’t Martin Because I fathered him correctly Rightly, making sure he knew that Righteousness and justice were synonymous In the Greek And reality is not the garbage he sees So scripted on TV And in the end that justice wins That the good guys win and Every Zimmerman pays for his sin But I’m not into telling fairy tales To growing young black boys, so I tell him that With God all is possible That Christ’s hand rests upon him, but it doesn’t mean that He’ll never know struggle That even though he would have been sheltered from the harsh pain of actuality Because his mother and I knew better to show him and his siblings better There will be times as a young man that he will doubt the necessity of his very existence And he will have to fight for respect and equality to be given at all times Not because he is less man than the next man, but because Fallible man is so much man and Not everyone recognizes the God in his brother But I promise him that He can be whatever it is that his mind dreams him to be That if his vision remain clear then he could Without a doubt in my mind, go beyond where his father has climbed Exceed further and see more than his own personal Moses had traveled That he has the capacity to be exactly who he, his parents and his God says he can be Extraordinary So that if his own son, my grandson, were to come to him one day And ask if he were in danger of being a Trayvon if he wore a hoodie That he could tell him easily ‘Son, you can be more Barack’ than Trayvon if you so choose to be Because the world has evolved so much from what grandpa has seen And praise the Father because you have inherited the earth, and a Kings' dream All because my father taught me Against what society taught him And married him a good woman Who never had to be concerned with Lil Wayne teaching her how to love Who understood that love and relationship journey with fidelity and commitment Like this, fingers intertwined And they raised a testament to it In me And I tell you that you Never have to fear a hoodie combined with candy and iced tea As my father told me, The world is in danger of you being whatever you want to be This is prophecy I think forward As time rewinds itself back to this moment Where I face this little boy with brown eyes Wide, whom I call mine And guide him, teach him Talk with him about this beautiful gift Of life And for him to make it as he is to me Extraordinary ©2012 Bryan Winslow Thanks Bryan! Submit your poems to: nightwriterblog@yahoo.com Administrator reserves the right to edit all submissions