Judah Oudshoorn looks to verse for an answer.
He awakes to the sound of breaking glass.
His mother cries his father only laughs.
“Go back to bed, young boy”
He is hurt on the pitch intercepting a pass.
He can’t stifle his tears, teammates laugh.
“Don’t be a bitch, fat boy”
He has used his fists at last.
Victim bleeds, he trembles a bit, the crowd jeers like loud laughs.
“Way to man-up, tough guy”
He looks to a chaplain for mass.
Only person in the prison who will not laugh.
“Take time to just be, boy”
He awakes to a concrete overpass.
His cries empty to the sound of rich laughs.
“Pull up your socks, lazy boy”
He buries his head deep in the past.
He is frozen and cold, alone with the laughs.
“What the fuck is a man?”
—Photo erokcom/Flickr