In a jungle of criminals
A land of crooks
A young brown boy
Nestled up with a book
Page by page
Word by word
Settings so large
Tales unheard
While others were playing
Running, jumping, being bold
He was inside
Experiencing things the streets never told
Plots of love
Stories of deceit
Characters of beauty
Heroes who violence could never defeat
But who was he
To be so smart
To have brains
To have a better start
He was just a brown boy
Dark and limited
A product of his surroundings
But that’s not how he saw it
He was different
And there were others too
Those who never gave in
Those who had more to do
So though they teased
And called him names
The brown boy knew
His color would never leave him tamed
