A poem a day for 2013 - day 350 - Daily. News. Daily. For Dione Payne

I must not allow myself to be swallowed up in the sadness of news
No matter how horrific
No matter that two grown white men raped and beat and killed a sixteen year old black boy
Dropped his unconscious body off at an emergency room
No matter his death shortly after
And his mother's tears
O his mother's tears
Have you ever heard a mother cry and scream for her boy
O his friends
His father
His teachers
His block
I cannot be swallowed up
I cannot not be
My prayers for all of us
My prayers for my own angry self
He had a troubled past they said
The boy
The boy who was raped and beaten and died
A troubled past
They said
Like a troubled past means we deserve to die
To be raped and killed
A troubled past
We live in a world that tells girls not to get raped
We live in a world that tells boys not to get killed
We live in a world that tells us to smile
Do you know how to move on
Tell me about that
That kind of moving on
I am angry and tightfisted and afraid
It is outrageous the attack on our boys
Our girls
Our bodies
Our lives
Soon come though
Soon come
Our big eyes opening every day