flash back to last week
september 5

it’s rare that you meet a young black male with so much confidence in his academic possibilities and capabilities
i was impressed. actually had to ask david to repeat himself cause when he said that he must have a phd before his name that was like an out of body experience for me
i dont know if i hang out in the wrong circles but i never heard anything close to that before in Guyana coming from an impoverished child
if i did i cant recall
i was hearing him and thinking to myself did i hear this boy right just now?
he repeated it and confirmed that my auditory system was still in tact

some folks promised to make sure david got his phd and i been thinking about him
i have an idea where he lives in a sea of shacks
no yard toilet facilities etc
unusual for a young man and a testament to poverty he has no phone
using his mother’s number
called to check up on him and get the latest

david has abandoned school plans for now and on the street selling water with his mother

so what’s the plans with school david?
am not going
what?
am not going mister mark
why not?
i don’t have the money. we don’t have the money
how much money you talking about david?
$7000 (35$US) mister mark
take my number and call me tomorrow

ended phone call and took a few deep breaths
all i can think was poverty is violence
i live in a country where the top mathematics student in his school selling water to survive on the road and negroes preparing for the second coming of prince harry or william or whatever his name is
he’s coming to rebrand his slaves in the year of joob

you don’t have to do anything for david
but suffer in silence when he comes for you
run tell dat

Protesters pose with a police shield outside the parliament in Ouagadougou on October 30, 2014 as cars and documents burn outside. Hundreds of angry demonstrators in Burkina Faso stormed parliament on October 30 before setting it on fire in protest at plans to change the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year rule. AFP PHOTO / ISSOUF SANOGOISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images