having grown up in an integrated neighborhood and having had some very close black friends in my youth i had always assumed i had some knowledge of the american black experience time has put to me the truth that i did have a clue as to the complexity of that experience and the crippling and life changing decisions that slavery and racial discrimination had wrought on even the most sensitive of my blood prince and acquaintances not a clue when my relative maturity i began to discern these profound problematic truths in relation to to close black friendships i had as an adult and the very real tragedies this man had to deal with every day and that affected every breath they took i knew i had to somehow deal with their experiences and those of their race in some sort of germanic form my first attempt ended in failure even before it began but apocalypse informs because i had both my own life and  four other men all of them black to guide me the tragic experience of american black men is more than a human tragedy it is both criminal and incessant on  primitive and animalistic level they are hated by many white male americans because of their great beauty and assume the sexual prowess and this hatred has solidified itself into a myriad of cultural attitudes specifically created to the nih them validity hurled at them from this american society are the most vicious of steroids stereotypes that are so ingrained that hundreds of murders each year are the result in this united states of america on every societal level they are assaulted physically verbal e and by all the other tools of american communications technology as to their supposedly and assumed racial and intellectual inferiority when i have attempted in this piece apocalypse is to have an extremely intelligent and sensitive young black man confront what is before him and his brothers and to fashion a poetic response in this i have been assisted by new friend who has helped me immensely to understand the black experience as he is in his own life trying to cope with such poor not only himself but his infant son bless you ludovick andre bless you for trying to inform an ancient poet what it is like to be black man in america you have my deepest affection and respect for the incredibly fine person you are and the depth of your hope and vision for the future all of which you have done in this beautiful and profound rendering here our nothingness what o and guns can never silence  i look these are the sex of me not even whisper hope to be hope beyond a decade but no  and violence there are no judgement here no reason to w that i am dead his name was  and he was beautiful i read from where i was that when they found the one that asked for blood great children begin to cry are we next they started to their fear are when who walk the streets shall be reduced a mother's you are to me my brother and so those who killed you money space smoke why were you there why were you there that grass around your ches those dollars in your mouth or may not even time to replicate yourself going through the darkness you see me kate of blood how soon how far will i be with you there are some words the laughter of my baby boy the joy i hear the deep route the rope my man shout that brings me to a place where all this sanguine silence cascades celestial bells above and joy and joy the breath my wife i answer her and move but they're also s the closing of a door how many walk in terror not only night but sun these cars come upon us  and them words of death why do you hate us life to death from lusty blood to anger whose blood to live no more i curse you men and uniform brown men are for the year snow and  uppity cocky they took from us our grace and air and flesh and all those south africa and bred in u brown men brown women hear the sounds brown mad brown  sweet my how y why they're there be to take our arms not yours that crime you have denied yourselves because when the seed of us are joined are none more beautiful the earth her none more beautiful the it was the frame of all of her others who did see this you did come boss who turned your head that black and solve the water we're from the head of you the said to us upon her knees forgive us we cannot them protect concrete streets forgive us for the strength we did not have as you did there burned it's forgive us from this devil who first in force and then in law so try to kill us  my son my son you say you say we are less than animals drinking at the troughs your legal morass is to us so poor to us so vain to us so nothing in the sun you say but never want sing knowledge you raped us from our homes brought us here in chains this alley and place and work this to deliver death what of it made us men and women and children who bled no less than you and now you ask that i spy your goodness come compassion so now you asked that i believe your promise so someday i will be as you address this ellie and universe cute home no oh no oh now white men and boys do not sing to me and finity but turn yourselves around oh the joy of it the joy of it the joy of it i am a children love by they live they live they live and in this and this cannot not ever kill where are the joy i want to dance i tell you dance as you were meg and put grey fingers there the you tell me and he will look brown skin brown eyes brown fingers toes and hair