Let Me Be a Boy, Not a Threat by Michael Emerald

Each morning, the mirror names me foreign.

Let Me Be a Boy, Not a Threat

by Michael Emerald

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I sleep like a man ashamed
of his own reflection.
Each morning, the mirror
names me foreign.
O Lord, let me wake
in a place that loves
my skin, my sound &
my shadow. Let me be
a boy, not a threat.
Make me a dream they can’t shoot.