Opening Statement

Photo By Graham Ruttan on Unsplash

Three Teens Arrested in East Palo Alto School Vandalism Case

Boys, one 13-year-old and two 14-year-olds, allegedly broke into Edison-McNair Academy, where they attend elementary school [sic]. Police believe they broke dozens of windows, spray painted extensive graffiti, trashed classrooms and computers and stole six laptops.
—The Mercury News, January 25, 2008

I’ve had the privilege of traveling thousands of miles
to educate myself in the way this world defines it.

And I can testify, with all certitude, there is no greater
distance on earth than that between Palo Alto & EPA,

an indissoluble fact that sits at the bottom of my body
like frozen French toast, which I’d hoped would once be

a source of unrest in the hearts of my colleagues
across the creek. I fear the only thing that it stirs

is a cappuccino, the heat of talks that last as long as froth.
So help us God. This case is about boys caught in throes.

A Jim Crow ago, men sat at a table, for an hour debated
how far we’d come, to drag the end of their cigarettes.

Now, I’m invited to the table. There’s color to this panel.
But enough wine, corkscrews to squeeze, and a pink suit

who hails from the north part of the county will creep
up to me, having heard my comments about improving

Ravenswood School District, and grab my shoulder
to confess, I just love those kids, how she’d happily pay

for a bus, and so would my boss. She confirms this
with a tug of his sleeve. Every day, I’m a litmus test

to this country’s belief in itself. Just think: a few blinks
ago, a boy threw acid at a little girl’s eye because he,

& half the country, couldn’t fathom her as his class
-mate, so much so, a soldier had to lift her dress,

bend her frame over the faucet—lest she lose her sight,
lest I lose mine. This is the reason I stand before you

today, despite the trauma of my past, the blood in my eye.
I’ve decided to recount to you all the segregated time

I was 14 and witnessed a group of boys in 2008
sneak inside the halls of Ronald Edison McNair,

allegedly. And in a single night, destroy the only 32
computers we had, and in the process, themselves.