of walking down the street at night, red
and blue sirens wailing past, and people
being shot in front of me, their bodies
dragged across the sidewalk
out of view.

Maybe because I’ve binged
The Handmaid’s Tale
or work too much (stress
the swan song we stay singing).

Whatever the cause,
I live
in America, America,
America.

(originally published in Good Cop / Bad Cop: An Anthology (FlowerSong Press), Summer 2021)