20/01/2026
Dreaming Black Boy - James Berry
I wish my teacher's eyes wouldn't go past me today. Wish he'd know it's okay to hug me when I kick a goal. Wish I myself wouldn't hold back when an answer comes. I'm no woodchopper now like all ancestors.
I wish I could be educated to the best of tune up, and earn good money and not sink to lick boots. I wish I could go on every crisscross way of the globe and no persons or powers or hotel keepers would make it a waste.
I wish life wouldn't spend me out opposing. Wish same way creation would have me stand it would have me stretch, and hold high, my voice Paul Robeson's, my inside eye a sun. Nobody wants to say hello to nasty answers.
I wish torch throwers of night would burn lights for decent times. Wish plotters in pyjamas would pray for themselves. Wish people wouldn't talk as if I dropped from Mars.
I wish only boys were scared behind bravados, for i could suffer. I could suffer a big big lot. I wish nobody would want to earn the terrible burden I can suffer.