A Lesson Before

He goes
Unwanting and angry
Grant breathes
His breathless life
Into the soul of a dying man
A man who hasn’t found himself yet
Grant doesn’t know how,
But he must try

Visiting the jail,
Unaware
Not knowing
That he nears
Not knowing that he knows

A teacher
His journey
His lot in life
NOT
To run
“like the nigger he was born to be”
He, Grant
Is better than that
He is supposed to make
A difference

Teacher,
Synonymous with helper
Saving souls
Rediscovering manhood
Through the eyes
Of the already dead

-Starr Sackstein