The Book of Forbidden Fruits and Punishments

Guest Contributor: Princeton Wheeler-Marcovitch

Illustration by: Ranier Moore

He sat there waiting for his arrival 

His parents hating him already, wishing he was sacrificial

Yet he doesn’t know his dad has already left the scene

So he comes out bright as a light 

But all his mother can see is the devil in her sight

“IT’S A BOY” the doctors say 

And all his mom can do is cry 

“This forbidden fruit” she says “sadly it is mine”

The doctors stare at the child 

And the mother suddenly says

“You’re a child full of sin”

And from there on his oppressive journey begins.

There he was finally walking

And later on in the year, he was finally talking

He was now three

His mother already thinking that later the prison is where he would be 

Because he is a boy, she gives him no love 

Because his daddy left, she holds a grudge

His mom is an alcoholic 

And that should explain itself

Because it will show why later in life he ends up in a cell by himself

The first word he says is “love”

And she tells him to “shut up”

And from there on the depression and abuse erupts

He looked at the beautiful sky as he walked home 

The familiar feeling of being alone 

He was now nine

He has got into so many fights

His teachers saying he is so young with a dimming light

He is so confused about what love is 

Because his mother said he didn’t deserve to live

Heart pouring out black 

Because love is what he lacks

He walks into his prison 

Looking around noticing his prison is hell with big buildings

He gets to his building and takes it to his floor 

Then walks to his door

The smell of alcohol and weed tells a story of it’s own  

The story of a confused soul that is all alone

Crips and bloods all around 

Red and blue tends to cause trouble to all in town

He is now thirteen 

Looking for what people call a “family”

He sees the red bandana 

People look at it and see danger

But he sees a bond

Gang members who looked for their “family” once

So he hangs with them so he can be a blood

Time flies by and he gets a sense of love

Fighting and stealing got him thinking this is all his life

Talking to his older “brothers” for money 

And beating up kids knowing this not the reason Martin Luther King Jr fought for our rights

Judgment day is almost near 

And he doesn’t know it’s almost time

So he starts to grow up in this cycle of crime

The drugs are overwhelming for him

Making him commit everything that is defined as a sin

He is now eighteen 

He has very little of what society calls “love”

And because of that, he cries for help from the man above

He is smart enough to know this is not fully his fault for who he is

But also his society’s fault for letting this be the life he lives

He is the stereotype of a black man

And the life he lives in a broken upland

He knows this is his life and that is sad to say 

Because every sin he commits sends him a step closer to his grave

Here we are, at the end of the story

Another story of a black man with no love and glory

His final chapter is here and he knows that 

Flowing with envy and seeking for hope 

Because of all these years of no love he gains no growth

Arrested at nineteen he spent a year behind bars 

Alcohol and weed had his mind thinking murder was nothing but fine

He was freed from jail at twenty

Because he killed a gangbanger, his head is on the market

His killers waiting for him because his head is their main target

He is still twenty and is nothing but a sinner

A few moments away until his ending

He has a child that he never sees

And because of that he will be just like his dad nothing but a deadbeat

He starts to head home 

Every sin comes with a punishment

Grabbing every dream and crushing it

As he walks home bullets start to fly

The devil telling him it’s time to say goodbye

So this is the end 

He lays there soulless

Another dead black man with a forbidden fruit and a killing punishment