A LESSON ON BLACK ANGELS, Firebird, Dreams of the Angelic

Firebird

    II.      Firebird

A black boy walks home.
the honeyed glow of the sunset
bathes his skin,
and the innocence of his basketball
drumming against the sidewalk
sounds through the air.

He wears his brother's hoodie
and his father's smile,
but the man in blue mistakes his youth for
a threat, a menace
a stain.

In his eyes the boy is not a boy,
but a man.
And he has committed the ultimate crime.

Existing while
black.

He follows behind slowly,
His car a pestilence.
His siren a beacon of death.
And his gun a scythe,
that harvests black souls like grain.
He is judge, jury, and executioner.

Black boy runs.
His heart pumping quick,
sweat drips cold down his back.
Fear turns in his mind,
and he feels the lunch his mother made
creep up his throat.

But the bullet steals his youth.
Face down on the cracked sidewalk
with dying breaths escaping his mouth,
he lies, as the blood seeps out
dark and thick.

His guardian angel
manifests in shimmering light above.
It hovers with wings outstretched,
skin dark like ebony ingots,
and eyes a steady gold flame.

It reaches down and touches a hand
across his cheek.
"RISE" it booms,
melodious and haunting.

The young black boy's body bursts into flames.
Brighter than bright,
he rises from the ashes of his blood-soaked hoodie
with wings spread wide.
Ascending.
A phoenix of the once fallen.
A firebird.