Boys Poems

Eating Disorders, Young Boys and Girls

The glass has teeth—
it bites at dawn,
gnawing away what flesh I thought was mine.

A rib is a rung to heaven,
but the ladder never ends.
Numbers bloom red on the bathroom scale,
they hum like insects in the skull.

I am a mannequin—
wire shoulders, hollow eyes,
a smile stitched with needles.

Children bruise themselves
against invisible rulers.
They carve equations into skin:
less, less,

High School Boys

I would follow you anywhere,
Across the fields where oak trees stand,
Their moss hangs heavy in the air,
Like secret banners, soft and pure.

Two rivers clear, they shine apart,
And yet they meet beyond the hill,
As if they knew the longing heart
That cannot choose, yet loves them still.

You read your books, I watch your eyes,
Each word is more

Beautiful boys

You could see in the blush in his face
He was life itself
He spoke about the stars
With the same tone he spoke
About his beloved mother
And it infected me
And I was in fire.

Shoe Problems

This limerick is about a clown,
who when shopping in a nearby town.
A mother with small boys,
said his giant shoe made too much noise.
Shoeless he shopped while tip toeing around.

Elegy to the Lost Boys

Different individuals, yet sharing the same heart,  
Different individuals, yet united by the same vision.  
They emerge from their shelters at dawn,  
Invigorated by the morning light.

Boys with diverse talents,  
They transformed the unused and discarded.  
Boys of profound grace,  
They knew how to summon the elements to do

V TERRORIST THREATS MONTIFIORE BAD BOYS HOMES ROOSEVELT ROAD CHICAGO 1969

1969 WAS A HORRID TIME IN CHICAGO MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS KILLED CHURCHES LOOTING CHICAGO WAS LITERALLY BURNING DOWN ESPECIALLY THE WEST SIDE GANGS CONTROLLING THE STREETS SINCE JEFF FORT LOST THE GOVERMENT FUNDING FOR CITY YOUTH PROGRAMS BECAUSE HE WAS FUNDING THE GANGS BLACK SOULS SO YES BETWEEN HIM LARRY HOOVER BLACK PANTHERS CIVIL

boys lessons

They told him, “Boys don’t cry or feel,”
“Stand tall, be hard, and never kneel.”
So he learned young to wear a mask,
To fake the strength they dared to ask.

He bit his tongue, he clenched his jaw,
Afraid to show a single flaw.
And every tear he held inside
Just made him hollow, made him hide.

They praised him when he

THEY ARE NOT YAHOO BOYS

They can be so much more
if only you let them in
if you show them a world
beyond screens and borrowed dreams.

They are not yahoo boys.
They are survivors of a broken system
running from the weight of waiting
where opportunity hides behind closed doors.

Imagine who they could become
if the field was level
if rules were sacred
and hope wasn’t taxed by

Boys Don’t Break -But I Did-

They say boys don’t cry.
They say it like a promise.
Like strength is stitched in our skin at birth
and weakness is something
you have to unzip your chest to find.

I was eight
when I learned that sadness had a gender.
That girls get tissues,
and boys get told to “tough it out.”

That scraped knees get band-aids,
but broken hearts?
Those just get

Aztec Boys

At the age often, Aztec boys back in the day
Had all their hair cut except one lank, out of the way
They could not get that one cut off until their mission was complete.
Bring home a prisoner from battle, isn’t that sweet?

When Little Boys Fall in Love

A Meditation on Growing Up

[Age 5] — The Sand Kiss

You hated when someone kissed your nose,
I buried you deep where the warm sand grows.
Then stole a kiss beneath the sky,
The waves clapped soft as we said goodbye.

I. [Age 6] — First Light

Your nails chewed down to rosy tips,
Sorting bottle caps with careful grips.
I offered you

Schools are Changing

Gates once locked with poverty's rust
now swing on golden hinges
Every child a key-holder:
the girl whose fingers paint light from darkness,
the boy who dreams in mother tongues and thinks in mathematics,
wheels spinning stories across threshold stones.
Breakfast arrives with sunrise and hope,
satellites whisper knowledge to mountaintops,
libraries gallop on horseback to forgotten villages.
Schools are changing.

Democracy breathes in corridors
where

boys

so icky
so stinky
so gross
that’s what we were told growing up
i didn’t talk to them because
boys had cooties

he hits me because he likes me
he flirts by making fun of me
he talks about me to his friends
and says i’m easy
is this what love is like?
i’ve never had anything real

he pays for me
he opens doors for me
he worships

Black boys deserve flowers too

Black boys deserve flowers too

Black boys deserve flowers too
Not just at their funerals
Not when they're already gone
Not when we are just mourning them

Black boys deserve flowers too
Not just laid at their tombstone 
Not just because you feel guilty 
Not just because you couldn't love them fully

Black boys deserve flowers too
This is long overdue 
They deserve

Boys and Girls Who Dream And They Die

These days I often find myself
lying on my pristine rock, hard bed 
thinking about why the world would 
ever care about someone like me. 
I wonder how my thoughts ever drifted
this far. Maybe social media?
Or my own self-conceit, brimming with 
forbidden passions even van Gogh or Picasso
couldn't imagine. Yet, I only say that
because I can't

• Short Boys Poems
• Famous Boys Poems
• Best Boys Poems
• Read Boys Poems
• Long Boys Poems
• Boys Quotes