UGLY.

Your son is ugly

He knows betrayal intimately,

Carries whole graveyards in his heart

As a child relatives wouldn't comfort him

He was a broken frame and shattered glass

They said he reminded them of the abuse

On his twelfth birthday you taught him

How to tie his shoes like shackles

And wear them proudly through the halls

You made him inhale smoke

And while he choked said,

Duro boys like you shouldn't smell of vulnerability or softness

You are his mother

Why did you not warn him

Hold him like a freshly picked flower

And tell him that girls will not love him

If he is covered in weeds

If his eyes are filled with fog

If his stomach is boiling with lava

If his hands are wrecking balls?

What woman wants to lay down and watch her home crumble and raze from her bedroom?

Your son's mind is a whirling storm of thunder and lightning

His bones quaking like loose plates

A deserted garden behind each ear

An abandoned temple left in his place

But god only knows when he'll fall

Inspired by Warsan Shire