The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005

Baby Boy

45 baby boy Baby Boy s a veteran, hs bad leg, hs paunch are scars. He remembers when South Baltmore was hell and rsk for blacks at nght; he has rolled the world to snake eyes on the black sde of Pgtown bars. Sweat creeps now from fibers of gray har. He curls hs cgarettes from hdden smles, now that the streets are safe to walk wth small .22s and straght razors, now that black folk are not playthngs, now that curses come from under breath, as fire snortng from deep down. Baby Boy outstrps the youngsters, loadng trucks, soaked n hs own water, lmpng. Now that we don’t have to hold back, Baby Boy goes through Pgtown n a new car, hs cap turned sdeways and down, for busness. Baby Boy s a warror. ...