blkgrl missing.

for lost Black girls in Clinton Township.

blkgrl missing.

since her inception,

she was a shadow

fighting to be recognized as a person.

wrapped in fugitivity on arrival,

she was missing before she ran away.

all the times she was ignored

antagonized

ostracized

relegated to a “child’s place”,

but never given a child’s solace

never rendered worthy

of enough protection

or grace

or care

…

blkgrlmissing—

she was missing before she ran away.

when she heard about Ma’Khia Bryant.

Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones.

Breonna Taylor.

with each name, a piece of her became a ghost.

another thought and feeling, silenced.

another dream buried.

another question to consider:

“how will i survive today? who can i trust? where are my people? why don’t they love me?”

inquiries that mother wounds magnify

prayers undelivered, transmission compromised

Blkgxrl missing.

i pray we find her

before she is swallowed up by the dangers of this world

Photo by Daniel Tijesuni

i wrote this piece last month, when a friend of my daughter’s ran away from an abusive household & then went off the radar for about two weeks. i did everything i could think to do, and it still was not enough. in that time, i realized just how easy it is for a Black girl to disappear, even when there are people looking for her. she has since reached out & we know where she is, but as I stated in the poem, she was missing before she ran away. by that i mean she was isolated to a point where she felt her best option was to run over an hour away from her house with no phone charger, no plan, and no one she could call.

despite Black people making up less than 16% of the U.S. population, in every age range, Black children are missing more than any other children. And this is just with the data we have, so many people go unreported. in my city (Detroit — the Blackest city in America, for context), 91% of missing people are Black, 60% are youths, and 1 in 3 cases involves someone who has mental health issues or dementia. (source: https://archive.is/nLKmI) this doesn’t account for the surrounding areas where Black people go missing in metro Detroit.

this piece comes with a call to action: be an active ally to the Black children in your communities. learn how to show up for them, how to communicate with them & ask questions without accusing, how to intervene & de-escalate, how to really be a safe space for them & not be another oppressive adult in their life. assess who around you can be trusted in case a Black child goes missing, form state-wide networks so that a search party can be activated, making pigs a last resort.

there is nothing more important than the physical, emotional, and spiritual safety of a Black child.

care about Black kids before they go missing. it takes a village.