- after the Hoagland/Rankine thread, Feb. 2011
In the Walmart parking lot
a man walked up to me;
he seemed distraught
and angry, and cried:
“That white man over there
called me a nigger!”
which, although I heard
exactly what he said,
I decoded inside my head
as: “That white man over there
took out a knife
and stabbed me in the heart!”
and I blurted out
“let’s call the police!”
whereupon the man,
the very sad man
put his hand on my shoulder
and asked, “are you ok?”
to which I replied, “yes;
yes, I think I’m ok.”
Then the man asked for some money
and I gave him everything I had,
two dollars
and some change.
*
The Hoagland poem is here. Rankine's post relating to her AWP panel presentation to the poem is here. A couple of blog posts about the matter are here and here.
In the Walmart parking lot
a man walked up to me;
he seemed distraught
and angry, and cried:
“That white man over there
called me a nigger!”
which, although I heard
exactly what he said,
I decoded inside my head
as: “That white man over there
took out a knife
and stabbed me in the heart!”
and I blurted out
“let’s call the police!”
whereupon the man,
the very sad man
put his hand on my shoulder
and asked, “are you ok?”
to which I replied, “yes;
yes, I think I’m ok.”
Then the man asked for some money
and I gave him everything I had,
two dollars
and some change.
*
The Hoagland poem is here. Rankine's post relating to her AWP panel presentation to the poem is here. A couple of blog posts about the matter are here and here.
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