alternate names for black boys

“alternate names for black boys” is an accumulation of lyric images into a list. Numbering the items 1 through 17 in ascending order creates sufficient order in the poem, freeing the images to be distinct, independent entities. However, there emerges a complex discordance—and even a paradoxical quality—both within and between individual items; altogether, the experience of reading the poem mirrors the not-easily-resolved experiences of Black boys, giving the reader a taste for the feeling and challenging them to accept and affirm the experiences of others.

Though the images are varied and even seemingly disparate, the poem creates meaningful relationships between them through occasional repetition, modulated tone, and the cumulative effect of all images together. Some items echo one another, such as Lines 8 (“gone”) and 10 (“going, going, gone”), as well as Lines 5 (“guilty until proven dead”) and 7 (“monster until proven ghost”). Limited repetition creates a sense of progression as the reader is rewarded for reading the items in the presented order and for remembering the previous items as they encounter new ones.

Changes in tone also move the poem forward and develop themes; the images that conjure awe and wonder are sobered by those with violent associations, and the more direct lines contrast against those whose meaning is only implicit. For example, “smoke above the burning bush” (Line 1), which alludes to the story of Moses, has a mystical, mythical sense of importance. The line “coal awaiting spark & wind” (Line 4) anticipates catalyzing forces, although those forces could almost be dismissed except for the direct line between fire and death in Line 12 (“what once passed for kindling”). Similarly, “monster until proven ghost” (Line 7) carries the same mythic, lyrical quality as Line 1. The next line brings the reader back into the present with one plain word: “gone” (Line 8).

These interwoven images balance a variety of moods without sacrificing one for the other. From beginning to end, because the speaker never settles in one place, the poem is as sober as it is wondrous and lyrical and devastated. The speaker holds these seemingly conflicting experiences all at once, refusing to resolve them easily for the reader. The list’s last item is neither totally devastating nor totally euphoric. It is both gleeful and apprehensive: “a mother’s joy & clutched breath” (Line 18). This closing image, which holds the most personal pathos in the poem, suggests the boy’s mother loves him but is equally afraid of losing him to violence. Given the poem’s earlier references to anti-Black racism—like the idea that Black boys are “guilty until proven dead” (Line 5)—this violence is implicitly racist. Moreover, if the poem is associated with Michael Brown’s shooting, the violence can be read as an abuse of such institutionalized power as law enforcement.