Stardust

Crimson vines snaked around his muscled forearms.

The ink, the stains

Permanent.

As the bloodstains in his palms,

As the gunshots in his mind,

As the venom in his heart,

As the record to his name.

His cornrows once crowned him king

Of the gangsters,

Of the felons,

Of the walking dead

That roamed the black alleys

Laying waste.

Not a glimmer of hope in those obsidion eyes,

Not a shadow of light in his heart,

Not a semblance of joy in that heaving chest

The sorrow,

The regrets,

The anger

Embalming his existence

Like formaldehyde upon a corpse.

Yet, in my baby’s eyes:

Below that furrowed brow,

Behind that pervasive despair,

Below the iceburgs in his pupils,

I see stardust.

A sole candle flickers,

Of a fading dream:

Fading but not gone.

Of a waning war:

Waning but not lost.

Of a dying boy:

Dying but not dead

My baby

Raped by his teacher,

Beaten by his father,

But not dead.

Misled by voices,

Poisoned by choices,

But not dead.

Baby, precious baby

You’re not dead.

I won’t forget the the days

Before you knew how to bleed,

Before your world turned to ash,

Before you fled from mama’s arms.

Baby, remember that day

When you nestled in my lap,

When I tousled your hair,

When your chestnut eyes looked

Innocently into mine?

Mama, someday I’m gonna be

Somebody

Mama, someday I’m gonna be

A Hero

A Hero, you told me

A Hero.

And I believed you

Because I saw the flecks of stardust

In your eyes.

Baby boy,

Don’t forget

Don’t forget

What you told me.

Don’t snuff that candle,

Don’t kill that dream,

Don’t lose that war,

Don’t lose

Yourself.

That’s what I told him.

You may be tarnished

But not destroyed;

That’s what I told him.

Baby,

I won’t give up

Because I love you;

That’s what I told him.

And the walls around his heart crumbled

And the darkness melted

Like snow in the spring

As the tears crept down his cheeks,

As the dream roared within,

As the candled flamed violently

And the hero rose from the dead

Breaking free from the shakles in his soul

To save the other boys

From the hell he once traversed.

Still crimson vines snake around his muscled arms

But the ink, the stains

Now fading

With the bloodstains in his palms,

With the pain in his heart,

With the record to his name.

Replaced

By the light in his soul,

By the love in his heart,

By the stardust in his eyes

The stardust in his eyes.