I Know You Were There
I Saw You
Your Mother
Got Nasty With The Cops
Like She Always Did
And You Went Back
To The Basement
After The Fracas
And Continued Screwing
Beverly Davis—
The Finest Black Girl
In Grammar School—
Her Long Legs
Wrapped Around
Your Neck—
I Saw That Too
From The Side
Of The Doorway—
Wow! That Was
Something For A Kid
Like Me—Still Looking
For A Kiss!
The Day After
Me And Your Sister
Won 2nd Place
In The Twist Contest,
You Stepped In DogShit
With Your New Wingtips...
I Saw It And Called
You "Shitshoe" Loudly
In Our 7th Grade Class
You Had Just Been
Transferred To From
Reform School
You Banged Me
In The Face For That
And I Understood
That Our Best Friendship
Was Over
...And Now For
The Hard Part...
I Was There
On The Street
When Your Crippled
Father Beat You
So Bad With His Cane
Out Onto The Stoop
Of Your Building
And You Ran Up
The Fire Escape
5 Stories
To The Roof
And Stayed There
At The Edge, Shivering
In Your Pajamas,
In A Big Blizzard.
Your Mother
Called The Cops
And They Got You Down
And Warned Your Father.
When I Saw That,
I Knew That You
Were Worse-Off
Than Me And
Always Would Be
Over The Next
Dozen Or So Years
I Wrote 3 Poems
Wondering About
You In Jail
And Whether You
Were Out Yet:
One On A Canal
Barge In Amsterdam,
One From An Oasis
In The Sinai,
One From A Courtyard
In The City Of Thanjavur—
I Asked Myself
About The Luck
Of Freedom—
Why Me And Not You?
After all, You Were The
Brave One.
When I Returned
Home, You Were On The
Front Page
Of The News
Along With Your
Brother And Sister—
Busted Kidnapping
The Richest Man
In America.
I Saw That
I Saw You
Now Everyone Did,
Even Me
