WEBVTT

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And then this next
poem, I think,

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is the low point of this book.

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And it's happening during the
Black Lives Matter movement.

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And it's based literally on a
video that I chanced to watch.

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Some of you might have watched
that or some other videos.

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Nocturne-- a man sleeps in his
car in the fast food parking

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lot.

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A cop knocks on his window.

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The man is passive as
a peony, gets out of

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the car, hands over his
papers without complaint.

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Does the breathalyzer quietly.

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Then the cop leans over the
man's ear, begins to arrest him.

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Parking lot lights
cast a cinder gleam

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on the naked, speckled asphalt.
The video camera stares.

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Suddenly, the man
frights like a tiger,

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struggles free,
runs, is shot, dies.

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We wonder, was it the handcuffs
drove the man mad like that

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or something else?

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Can we guess what word the cop
whispered in that Black man's

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ear that night?

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