Black Boy Climbs Into The Gorilla Cage To Ask For Advice By Marshall Gibson Poem by David Greene

The black boy cranes his neck up at the gorilla
Sees a glint of the familiar in the face
Watching him, he feels the fear leave him peaceful as blood pooling on a city sidewalk
And he whispers "I have so many questions"
The gorilla straightens it's back
"Then ask me."
So the black boy asks how do you survive your cage?
And the gorilla shakes its head and responds "no one ever survives"
The black boy says you're missing the point
Not at all says the gorilla
The block boy thinks for a moment
And the gorilla sees the panicked onlookers gathering around the fence
Point, shaking, like the barrel of an unsure gun
And the black boy says how do you stay alive?
Where do you hide your anger?
And the gorilla says I never hide
And the again the black boy says you're missing the point
"Not at all" says the gorilla
Black boy notices the commotion outside the gates
And says they're coming to protect me
You know these hunters have been waiting
The gorilla scoffs
Silly human who believes in protection
These hunters and their bullets never wait
They may make trophies of us but we are not yet
We are still alive
And the black boy says "But how? How are you still alive? How do you survive your cage? "
And the gorilla says "This cage is not mine"
And the black boy says "You're missing the point"
"Not at all, " says the gorilla
I didn't choose this cage, I was placed
These people with their wide white faces come to see us as dangerous
To watch our hands ready to tear living flesh from a skeleton
We pound our chests and roar as though we are not born of captivity
As though we are not stolen children
As though we do not live at their discretion
They mistake our wailing for anger but it is pain
The sound of the hell growing too big to be restrained
They imagine us without chains but never open the gate
They only turn our turmoil into spectacle
They call US animals
You want to know how I survive?
No one ever survives
You should know this you're black like me
You were born almost dead and have been molting pieces of your own life since
Black boy says then where do we go now?
Do we stop the pain?
And the gorilla says
I have only learned one way
Outside the cage the hunter loads his rifle
Swings the barrel up slow as nightfall
He can see every part of the gorilla through the sight
Its chest
Its throat
Its temple
The hunter relaxes
Takes a deep breath