Broken Boys

broken boys*

leave his casket open.
let the world see what it did to him,
creating a face even a mother couldn't recognize
couldn't know again
post his picture.
not the way his mother presented him to the world
but the way the world sent him back home
battered
ugly
bloody teardrops
missing teeth
aborted heartbeat
made-for-TV horror flick
no, not that station; the other
candle blown out by his city's harsh realities,
much deadlier than its wind
let his broken limbs
tell of how society couldn't arm him against its ills
or brace him against crippling odds
we build broken boys
of splintered wood
2x4's that beat them down could have been their brothers
with strings attached
but they instead are weapons
with matching boxes to be buried in
boxes that should be left open on display
for us to see what we've done
what we've done
to our boys
for even less than whistling
emmett's horror tilled this land
for an even uglier fate.

*for derrion albert

9.29.09