Understanding ideas of power imbalance in Femi's 'Thirteen'

The title 'Thirteen' has connotations of an unlucky, transitional period. The poem implies the officers now perceive the boy as threatening because he has transitioned from child to adolescent. There is a power imbalance between the officers and the boy. The boy feels physically intimidated and scared by the officers, The poem is based on Femi’s real-life experience of being stopped by police and falsely accused when he was thirteen.