And then this next poem, I think,
is the low point of this book.
And it's happening during the Black Lives Matter movement.
And it's based literally on a video that I chanced to watch.
Some of you might have watched that or some other videos.
Nocturne-- a man sleeps in his car in the fast food parking
lot.
A cop knocks on his window.
The man is passive as a peony, gets out of
the car, hands over his papers without complaint.
Does the breathalyzer quietly.
Then the cop leans over the man's ear, begins to arrest him.
Parking lot lights cast a cinder gleam
on the naked, speckled asphalt. The video camera stares.
Suddenly, the man frights like a tiger,
struggles free, runs, is shot, dies.
We wonder, was it the handcuffs drove the man mad like that
or something else?
Can we guess what word the cop whispered in that Black man's
ear that night?