⌘Every black boy is a Lion by Kai Coggin

Every black boy
is a lion,
cub,
young little brave thing,
not quite the intrepid predator,
clumsy with unknowing,
thick paws tell what
he will become,
(King)
heavy prints that his Legacy
makes in the heat of the Sahara or the sidewalk
or the cracked asphalt of inner-whatever-city,
and someone will find fault in him,
always a trophy hunter with a badge
waiting for nightfall.

Every mama lion
knows the taste of tears,
licks the scruff
and tough mane
of her juvenile
black boy lion,
teaches him to growl
without
showing his teeth,
teaches him the smell of his own blood,
teaches him that Pride has many meanings
and each one can get him killed.

Every black boy is a Lion,
a lineage of power
stripped from grace,
if you haven’t seen that resilience,
look a lion in the face,
another mother crying,
the safari is the streets,
if you don’t think they’re being hunted,
who are those people in white hooded sheets?
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Kai Coggin is a full-time poet and author born in Bangkok, Thailand, raised in Southwest Houston, and currently a blip in the 3 million acre Ouachita National Forest in Hot Springs, AR. She holds a BA in Poetry and Creative Writing from Texas A&M University. She writes poems of feminism, love, spirituality, injustice, metaphysics, and beauty. Kai’s poetry has been published in Split This Rock, Elephant Journal, Cliterature, ITWOW, The Manila Envelope, [empath] quarterly, Catching Calliope, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, and anthologized in several publications including Journey of the Heart and Journeys Along the Silk Road.

Her first full-length book of poetry PERISCOPE HEART was published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in September 2014, and has quickly become the best selling book on the press. She is also a Teaching Artist with the Arkansas Arts Council, specializing in bringing poetry and creative writing to classrooms around the state.