It’s on the same day I saw a
Porsche run into a pedestrian,
left lying there on his side
people went
to sit by him
while others pulled away,
not the blankets, but
the comfort offered by strangers,
how strange
was the estrangement
as we, as I watched
from the bus, screaming and calling 911
Porsche driver, not approaching
the person hurt there,
the person he actually killed
after tailing a car, the car that
finally slammed on its brakes in the rain,
everywhere wet and uneasy from
pushing up so hard
aggressive in the expensive,
hateful car that
hydroplaned onto
the curb populated
and riddled with people –
you were driving so fast
through the intersection /
I remember your shorts
and tennis shoes
through the slippery rain,
your arrogance, &
you weren’t even crying.
All day long, I reminded myself
that this could have been me –
hit someone with my car,
hurt someone
not meaning to
and then back on the bus,
a different line at the end of
the day and today, that
day, with lots of
chatter from a mechanic
talking to all the passengers
warning us that
even though the freeway
is the most hazardous place on earth,
the thing that causes
the greatest loss, the loss he
calls death,
is speed
that the most dangerous thing is
to change a tire on the freeway
having trained hundreds
how to do this in his lifetime
and here to talk about it
I saw how proud he was
to be a teacher,
but maybe he was more proud
to be alive
knowing that skillfulness
isn’t everywhere
and ignored
just the same
I feel the months of death mounting
between gunshots and machinery
cars and guns,
between
Buffalo and Uvalde
all of these people
all of these children
we are told that officers made the wrong call
also known as the wrong decision
and I recall what the mechanic said about speed
knowing how it kills,
thinking how quickly speed can save
just as easily as it does otherwise
knowing how many guns
lived in a place
that stood by and held silent
