the wall, in the yard, I could play,
but not in the street. And that’s
where the rest of the boys and girls
were playing, in the street. My
cousins, the neighborhood kids,
they’d open the gate and head out
and roam free and come back at
dusk. I’d beg my grandmother to go
outside.
“Please. Please, can I go play
with my cousins?”
“No! They’re going to take
you!”
For the longest time I thought
she meant that the other kids were
going to steal me, but she was
talking about the police. Children