A Young Brother Testifies: By Vera B. Hubbard

Black Buzz News Service
Scottsboro, Alabama
February 27, 2010

Vera B.Hubbard's poem titled" A Young Brother Testifies appeared in the Crossing Limits Anthology, 1996.
Crossing Limits is a project of Kingsley Association in co-operation with the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.
Vera B. Hubbard is a performance poet living and working in Pittsburgh. She often writes poetry in Ebonics, in the tradition of Sterling Brown, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Zora Neale Hurston. Her poetry has been anthologized and also appears in various literary publications.
Vera is a member of the Kuntu Writers Workshop.

A Young Brother Testifies : Vera B. Hubbard

My Mama said she named me Sam after my daddy,
The man I ain't never had a chance to see.
But mama say he look just like me.
They calls this the Ghetto where we stays;
Where mama tryin' to make our way,
An' doin' the bes' she can
To show me how to be a man.
But I can't count on gettin' grown
'Cause these streets is a battle zone
Where gangs makes rules
And back' em up with they gats in schools.

I don't want to be in no gang
And lots of homeboys feel the same.
But we got to do things they do,
Even kill for a jacket or a shoe
'Cause I done seen a dude blowed away,
Could have been about them drugs like they say.
But some of it got to do
With brother's not in the same gang, too.

In that other hood you's the mark
And out of the dark a shot can come
And your won't know where from.
I wanna grow up to be a man
So I kin help my mama all I can
But most times I can't see
How that's ever gonna be.
I think about time mama saved up
To buy me them Nike shoes
And a brother took'em with a gat
And I was one scared cat.

The big boys been takin' my daddy's place.
I wish he'd come back and show his face
'Cause most times I'm all alone
And have to make it on my own.
Mom's workin' keeps her late.
I ain't ate but the brothers waits,
So I slams the door with a bang and go to hang
On the corner with the gang.

Congratulations Vera Hubbard.