His Laughter
Marvin decided to plan
On what to do to those fools,
When he saw them again
On his way back from school.
–
Most evenings he ran
Taking the longer way.
Getting home tired,
Sweaty, but mostly angry.
–
For feeling like a coward
As he caught his breath,
Sitting on the steps
Near his front door.
–
He would go inside
With revenge on his mind,
Until one day he decided
On how to get back at these guys.
–
To put an end to the harassment
Or it would never stop,
And he spent every moment
Fine tuning his plot for payback.
–
Today was the day
As he turned on his street.
He started walking towards them,
The four guys who stood chatting.
–
The first to see him coming
Laughed and said to the others,
“Well if it ain’t this punk?
Fool! Pay or you don’t pass!”
–
Marvin quickly responded
“Not today, Pay my ass!’
The leader of the idiots
Grabbed him by the collar,
–
“What did this boy just say?”
Marvin pushed him off
And shouted, “Are you all vines
Why ya’ll leaning on me all the time?”
–
“You parasites, taking my coins,
Hustling me every evening.
Ya’ll must think I’m your daddy,
Or I owe your momma something!”
–
People heard the shouting
And many started to laugh,
Marvin started laughing too
Catching the clowns off guard.
–
Marvin suddenly got dead serious
And said in a low tone,
“If you hassle me again
I’ll kill one of you assholes.”
–
Never doubting it was true
After that encounter,
Marvin had no more trouble
From those thugs anymore.
–
They remembered his father
Was a cold blooded killer,
And Marvin was just like him
They had heard it in his laughter.
Ria – 2015
November 26, 2015 at 10:37 am
Great poem it could have appeared in The Norton Anthology of African American Literature by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay :). I also love the painting who is the artist?
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November 26, 2015 at 7:58 pm
That would have been wonderful :). The artwork is ‘Jim’ by William H. Johnson. Blessed Love.
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