A young bull
Lay in the ravine
Grazing on grass
Not making a scene
A young bull
Just laying all day
Until parasites, like children,
Came out to play
They came in flocks
Disdain in mind
With only one idea
To destroy their mind
The young bull
Surprised with awe
Despite internal thoughts
Kept sealed, his jaw
Like fire and wind
The thoughts spread with ease
Leaving the bull
Not knowing what to believe
Should I give in?
To their wrath like a victim
Or should I endure
With my thoughts I’m conflicted
I think of something
It’s on the tip of my tongue
The decisiveness of it all
Unraveling my mind till it’s undone
The bull kept quiet
Enraged and distraught
Like all he had known
Was lost and forgot
Until he realized
The strength in his fleece
And like a treaty of life
He had come to peace
That in this very world
A world of great sin
He would have to succumb now
If he ever wanted to win
Statement
For my narrative, I decided to use a bull as a metaphor for my friend Khair, who is African American. In the poem, the bull faces trouble from a parasite, who tries to influence him and take over his mind. In this, its a parallel to how my friend experienced racism from the men at the basketball court. At the court, the men would make comments about how Khair has more “natural hops” and how he’s “naturally more athletic” because of his skin color. To me, it sounds like the men were older and maybe that was just how they were raised. That to them, it was okay to say those things. However, my friend told me that the events at the basketball court rattled and changed his opinion of how black men are viewed in modern America, and how surprising it was to see how the older generation of white men viewed younger African Americans, and in general, and how somewhat attacking it was. My friend was dazed, but ultimately had to come to the conclusion that fighting back, and arguing about the situation would only lessen the view of African Americans in white men’s mind. So he decided to stay silent, and allow the men to say what they had to, knowing that in the future, things will be different with movements such as Black Lives Matter, and a new wave of progressive leaders.
The poem by Alexander langston called “The young bull” caught my attention because it is similar to what i had written about in my own poem and i recognized several of the same themes within his as i did my own. As i read through the poem the first time i had a small yet good understanding of what was try to be said. While the “conclusion” or brief explanation of the poem gave me a better understanding, i wanted to go back and read the poem itself to really get a better grasp of what was explained at the end. A couple of themes that i noticed in this particular poem were strength and racism, racism being the most prominent. By reading through just the first time i could automatically tell that this was a story that included a conflict of some sort. That conflict being wanting to say something when maybe it’s really not the time to or when you’re afraid to. I think that we can all relate to this in one way or another. Whether it be a race issue or not, at some point in our lives we have all been in a situation where we wanted to say something but did not because of our minds feeding us so many different thoughts we get overwhelmed or never do anything about it. It takes self strength to do so, and i can feel that though the “bull” and what is going through his mind and his internal conflicts. I also recognized a racism theme which is not as obvious in the poem itself, but it is very clear that there is some sort of conflict. There is a race issue in today’s world and it is evident in many shapes and forms. That being public, non public, purposefully or not etc. and that is very clear. After i read the explanation at the end i could go back and see where i could point out those themes of race within the poem but in my opinion they were not very prominent in just reading the poem. I do think though, that because racism is not very prominent or easily noticed in the poem itself before reading the explanation, it gives the reader a chance to contemplate many different outcomes of what that conflict is. This poem did a good job i feel at opening my mind in a sense of giving the reader a chance to come up with their own issue they feel it is and then being able to read the explanation of the poem and go back and reflect on it while catching those pieces that were not noticed the first or second read through. As well as opening up the reader’s mind, Alexander also made me and other readers realize that although we know racism exists, it is more common that we might think and can have a deep effect on the receiving end of that hate mental mind.