Auribus Teneo Lupum

The archway above
the door of my daughter’s new
school says something in Latin
about hard
work and leadership
but nothing about the tuition
fee required to walk through it.
The school is only new to us
as it has stood without us or people
that look like us
for decades,
and this is what my wife and I do
with our hard work and leadership;
a ransom we have secured,
we grease the rails for our daughter.
This is what you do
when you
are Black
and at jobs where you
suffer
through being
the minority,
you send your daughter
to the better
school where she
will suffer through being
the minority. But they love us
here. They love the shirt
and tie I pick as armor
to wear when I leave my daughter
with them. They love locks that twist
down my wife’s back
like taut rope they can point
out to investors. Your family is adorable,
would you mind posing
for this picture, you know we are remaking
the flyer, can we put you on the cover?
Give us
your daughter, she was too smart
to stay wherever
you came from. See the community
we’re building? See how
we have tamed the wild
dogs, I bet you haven’t heard
one bark since you got here. We can’t
guarantee they won’t get
hungry if you leave.