He moved like an upright standing black panther
crouching and gyrating always in a kind of sway.
Black sweatpants worn each day became like his fur
and a mind with a great precocity in full display.
Such an early intelligence they would concur
I couldn’t quite identify with him in that way
but astonishingly, he paid a close attention to me
when others of his caliber would often not.
Was it something in myself I couldn't see?
The lengths I would go to decipher his thought.
Trudging to school just a usual dusky dawn
standing at the stoplight drizzly and damp.
‘Another ordinary school day’ tiredly I yawn
as crows fly over the halted traffic light lamp.
The adumbrate of corvine fluttered through slight light.
A gait crept towards slinking from down below.
Like a black cat from my peripheral first sight
“Hi Kip” and this voice created a radiant aura glow.
It was just like that jolt you’ll get from morning coffee black
a voice I hear fills as the most peaceful feeling sets.
Adorned in midnight was his unwavering track
in an amalgamate of Air Force sneakers, hoodie and sweats.
Reunited at the day’s end
gym class in the same group
one girl’s surmise she would send
in between games of shooting hoop.
Mistakenly referred to me as his brother
he was in such a hurry to issue a correction
I wondered why take such hard literal druther
to an evidentially wonderful natural connection?
Can't find the words to explain the prodigious pride of what is now my favorite mistake.
in homogeneous attire brown-eyes and brown-hair we’re certainly alike with distinctions to make.
As I’m 6’4” which was more then evident as I tried to fit into the gym clothes you let me share.
Yet in our studies your intellectual stature towered in scale
and my dyslexia severed me into standards as you took the honors class
but it was in our gym time, your companion, that remedied my heart's ail.
Constructing akin friendships is the middle school life course I wished to pass.
As this crossing of our paths was not in grade-school’s teach
or while finding our grownup selves in the study of high
it was in the middle while our faces spouted hairs like a peach
our names even had the same soul energy – Kip and Kai.
An energy that is free flowingly fluent
alone you greeted me in this washroom confluent
side by side holding the part that makes us boys.
We are so harmonically alike and yet still specially unique
Your esteem gave the essential height to my once short poise
there is just no greater level of connection needed to seek.
