For obscure reasons, Seth is allowing me to post here again. The piece below originally appeared in 2012 in the American magazine 5AM and is noted by a British critic in a generous review of my first book, here. It depicts a problematic encounter between law officers and a civilian behaving strangely. There’s way too much evidence these days that suggests an unspoken part of the subject is race.
Protect and Serve
The taillights of the night’s last BART train fade.
Too cheap and poor to take a cab
I choose to walk the bridge, not doubting
it was meant for what I have in mind
until the steel mesh platform
I stepped from sidewalk onto narrows
to a catwalk above the boat-lit bay.
Fat rivets and low cable
complicate the passage but, fuzzy
on the difference between think and do,
I go on, not guessing what late drivers,
looking up on elevated roadways
in and out, must think. The squad
car with its lights on surprises me
as I surprise its occupants, coming
down so readily when they say.
One has seen a prostitute push
himself into air with the final
strength of legs younger than mine,
so they’re gentle with me in the car.
All they do is call me dumb fucking kid
and once they’re satisfied
that’s really what I am they take me
to the Oakland side,
their jurisdiction’s limit, halfway home.