* * * "Kiss this baby goodbye." it came in the mail a picture on the envelope cute cuddly white-furred softness baby seal DON’T LET THEM SLAUGHTER THE SEALS what does a seal mean to me? seal families camp on the shore then move out to sea minding their own * * * what does a boy mean? boys are trouble noise and mischief scram don’t stop shush (disappear) where is that boy? I know he’s up to something should he be up to nothing nowhere? * * * we ask is this the right form of selfishness? we love them for their small active muscles running stumbling tumbling first down! strike three! foul! you DID I DIDN’T you did SO I did NOT we love them for their bright eyes and shining skins eager hopes but they’re going to die anyway is this the latest Black tragedy? bleak and Black? so sad Black again today? * * * kiss this baby not a seal puppy or kitten but goodbye anyway infant goodbye child goodbye small boy adolescent man stages of death for eager hopes and bright eyes * * * raised hands raised hands waving frantically the answer I know I know fields of wheat raised hands waving frantically there’s hope for the future thousands millions of boys and girls waving frantically I know I know maybe they do * * * maybe like George Washington Carver was a small boy once could you have seen in those young sad eyes the gift of divine Providence? this son of slaves restored to life the whip-drained soil and save a whole section of the country from starvation no maybe no more he did it. * * * maybe like Garrett Morgan said I know I know and we thank him for the gas mask and the traffic signal maybe like other men who said we know we know and they came with the turn signal and the car coupler the third rail and the refrigerator car shoe manufacture industrial lubrication blood plasma and open-heart surgery and more and more and more small boys once who didn’t take don’t stop or shush for an answer |
| February 1981 |
| on concern for the death of human offspring in Atlanta |