560 Brooke Avenue, South Bronx

 560 Brooke Avenue ¹

The walls, barbed wire, barbed, next to a

drive-by window of Burger King: Dios, is

this your way? Electric doors, opened one

at a time, they make a sound, it maddens.

All the time the boys do time, all the time

they say, “Lunacy, this is crazy, crazy mad.”

It is. “Nigga, nigga,” one boy prays, farts as

the fat guard twists his hand: He tries to laugh,

he cries instead, porque? Scared, so scared,

his scarred voice cracks, 15. “Nigga, ay, I here

4 murder,” he lies. O child, perhaps so. My

Jesus of the got-nailed, my Angel of the why,

& what could you have done yet, & why are you

here, porque, my God, & donde vamos, u & I?

 1.      A maximum security juvenile detention facility in the South Bronx