LITTLE BROWN BOY
I'm two years old. I'm a happy boy.
Mommy and Daddy buy me toys.
I live in a city, a scary place.
People don't like my little brown face.
I want to be home in my own little bed.
But they took me away, and now I'm dead.
They took me away. I don't know why.
A mean man shakes me till I cry.
My little brown body is black and blue.
Daddy, I want to go home with you.
I want to be home in my own little bed.
But they took me away, and now I'm dead.
* Dedicated to Dominic James, who was shaken to death by his white foster father in Springfield, Missouri, on August 21, 2002.