For Kashala Francis

The cruelty in the world confuses me
The boys will be boys
The girls will be girls too
A girl got jumped by three girls and died
Thirteen years old
Kicked in the head
Nobody thought an apple could rot this soon
But she is dead today
Her body will turn to ashes
Her name in my poem
Her laugh in her mother's tears
In my hope that her family will live through the mud of grief
And see light again
Understand breathing again
Because stone
Because this must be rock hard
Because steady tears
Because life could be stuck on a Monday loop for all of us