In Praise of the Young and Black: After Gwendolyn Brooks

Later and   always
  we must speak
      of their     splendor
(those of us who nurture and honor them)
      and     of their destinies—as
  we admonish     against
      casting their beauty   to the
undeserving
      or
    neglecting       to be
      self-beloved
forgetting
      fierce selfhood
    ancestral
      inheritance
          ontological
            imperative—that
      they are answer to
                first questions
          and
            fates of nations. . . .

Before that
          we must     exalt them
as they begin to fathom
      the power
          of sure bodies and brown grace
            to allure
          and
            frighten
and know a power that seeks
                to suppress
      their own
      out of craving
          and
            sense
                of defeat.

      Yet
    first
      we must catch them
with gentle hands that     guide away
    from
          giddy     danger     as
    elastic     with         happiness
they balance
      big grins and
            delicate necks     eyes
    gleaming
    in the neon
      glare
of rejection.

    Let us         remind them
    of the ripe       core
of their       own divinity
    as they taste
the world's first offering
        of         un         love.