Found Fragment on Ambition

v.

if a hood is a sense of place

& a sense of place is identity

then identity is a hood & adult

hood is being insecure in any

hood a hood scares the whitest

folks why folks scared to stop

in the hood & why folks stop

wearing a hood & call it white

nationalism if i tried i would

fail to pass if i failed i would

try to pass when can i retire my

bowl stop needing to beg for my

person hood you see academically

my ghetto pass was revoked please

sir can you direct me to the window

to turn in my man card where

can i apply to enter the whiteness

protection program ive lost

my found identity is a hood

a hood is a sense of place

a place places a hood hood in us

From Post Traumatic Hood Disorder (Sarabande Books, 2018). Copyright © 2018 by David Tomas Martinez. Used with the permission of the poet.