Coffee Beans, Brown Boys and Truth: A Letter To Those Who Would Listen

next summer
my brother will be the same age
trayvon was
when he died.
and you will no longer think of him
as the polite and
adorable little boy
at camp kaleidoscope
with teeth too big for
his head.
and a head too big for
his body.
though you knew him well
you can’t seem to find
the little boy who
always smiled
and everyone loved.

in the curve of his mouth,
you no longer see the little boy
who ate leaves from the tree
after school with you,
and laughed.
in the lines of his hand,
you no longer see the boy
who grabbed a snake from
the bamboo during recess
and thought nothing of it.
you seem to have lost
all sight of the gap-toothed
child who you played with.

that little boy
is still there.
hidden behind a young man
struggling to learn
in a school that does not know
how to teach him
and expects
almost nothing from him.
i see a young man
nearly crushed by the lie you told him
when you said
“liberty and justice for all”

next summer,
my brother will be the same age
trayvon was
when he died.
and I pray everyday
to a god I no longer believe in
that he will make it through this.
i worry that some day,
someone will project
their misplaced judgments
on him and then
claim self defense
as a gunshot
rings through the night
and his future
disappears in an instant.

my brother has skin the color of coffee beans, and someday you’ll make him pay for it.

the original version of this piece was written in July 2013

Jailyn Gladney is currently a student at Boston University pursuing a degree in Sociology and African American Studies. Raised in Savannah, Georgia but currently based in Boston she uses the written word as her preferred tool for enacting social change and achieving social justice. Jailyn’s family and community are of the utmost importance to her.

When Jailyn Gladney is not trying to change the world, she enjoys eating bacon, watching YouTube videos about natural hair, teasing her brother, and laughing really, really hard. | Follow her at @jaiglad

“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do it because what the world needs are people who have come alive” ~ Howard Thurman

This piece was reprinted by EmpathyEducates with permission or license. We sincerely thank the Author, Jailyn Gladney for her kindness, vision, sensitivity and her enduring spirit We are grateful for the thoughts and feelings expressed as well for the encouragement to think about each of our “brothers.”