From ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me‘
Late one night in my office
one mile from home, I stared
out my window in an insomniac haze.
Remember how crazed I used to be?
Turns out eight hours of sleep
is the only vision quest I need.
Anyhow, as I stared out the window,
I saw a transformer sizzle
And spark down the block.
Accidental and gorgeous fireworks.
Then that transformer boomed
and turned the neighborhood
Into one large and powerless room.
In five minutes, the closed supermarket
parking lot below me was crowded
with dozens of black teens and young
adults.
A sudden party! And the bass that shook
their car windows shook my office
window!
Then three minutes after the party started,
six police cars pulled into the parking lot.
Oh, shit! Oh, shit! I wondered if somebody
was going to get shot! But the cops stayed
in their cars, content to just be reminders
of more dangerous possibilities,
while the black teens behaved like teens.
Twenty minutes later, the power came back.
I was surprised it had been fixed
so quickly. Soon enough, the black kids
vacated the lot. And the cops did too.
It was one of those city nights where
Bad things could have happened.
But it was good things that shook the air.
The music and car engines and laughter
singing only about love, not disaster.
by Sherman Alexie
from You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me
Little Brown, 2017
