Five Dreams

1.

Arrested with others, all
of us black
over apparently politics,
handcuffed & taken downtown
to the high marble halls
& stairwells:
I was afraid of the State
but the guards told jokes,
winked at us
& didn’t shoot the one
who ran:

a woman brought me
into her office, whispered
We can’t afford martyrs
& kissed me
(instead?)

–let me go,
let me go let me go,

& she did

but outside something had happened

and it took months to walk
home, the few miles out Genessee Street,
grass & moss
where the pavement had crumbled, the year
becoming winter,

K waiting for me cinematically, patient
in the bright snow.