Why Brown Boys Die

El ocho patas
knows why brown boys die

shot while they walk
in the hood

while they ride in cars
down the wrong street

while they buy cigarettes
at Family Mart

while they talk
to brown girls

while the sun
beats down on them

while the rain
soaks their bandanas

while they proclaim
their macho ways

while they run
and jump over fences at night

while they trespass
on apartments not of their own

while they breathe
somebody else's blue oxygen

while they stand on the corner
of a forbidden boulevard

el ocho patas
knows why the brown boys die