I remember when I first read this poem in Poetry Magazine. This was (apparently) back in 2014, 4 years ago (when I wrote this “Lawless Explication” originally. Reading this poem again, for the manyth time, (now, almost 10 years since publication), it remains clear little to no progress has been made. In fact, we live in even more harrowing times. The “little black boy” in the poem remains in great danger.