"Song."
"Nigger lover is a song spat out of an open car window at dusk
at the great mall in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The first time in five years we heard it, we almost made it.
Amazed this hasn't happened before.
It was the end of our going away party.
We are walking out across the lot.
What those drunken boys in the black Chevy saw was so obvious.
What else could they make of this invitation.
We almost made it.
Always carried a possibility around with us for years.
But it was the end of our going away party.
Almost, almost, almost got out scot-free.
Almost didn't have to hear it right where
you are supposed to hear it.
Almost didn't have to drive home thinking hard
about the headlights at our backs,
carry their hearts singing away, in our car, in our heads.
We almost, almost, almost got away.
We were just walking out, soft twilight in the hills
surrounding the lot, laughing our plump laughs.
Nearly gone."