the u.s. male
has his hand on this arab girl’s wrist

i’m not lying

this is going on right at the corner
of bay ridge parkway and colonial avenue

a fitting street for the u.s. male to be standing on
if you ask me

because he knows everything about the founding of america

the u.s. male keeps telling this arab girl
that america was founded on judeo-christian beliefs

you can’t deny it, he tells her
america is a judeo-christian nation to its core
giving her wrist a little tug as her kid cries

where else can you get this kind of democracy?
he asks

egypt? they want to kill all of us, he tells her

because this u.s. male is obviously well-informed
so well informed that he’d make rupert murdoch proud

i don’t know what the arab girl is saying back to him
she looks nervous and she talks so quietly
plus her kid is crying and making a lot of noise

she can’t really get a word in edgewise
what with the u.s. male shouting into the november cold
and schooling this chick on decades
of american foreign policy

while all of his good old neighbors walk by
telling the girl to go back to where she came from

you’re probably asking yourself why i won’t get involved
and you’d be right to ask this

but, see, i’m just a guy on a street corner
on his way to the grocery store

all i wanted in this world on a saturday afternoon
was a six-pack of beer and some barbequed chips

i didn’t want to come face to face with the u.s. male

i’ve been there plenty of times and i always lose
because there’s no arguing with ignorance
and a corrupt sense of manifest destiny

plus this just seems too surreal to be happening

some wealthy
white-bearded
golf hat wearing
windbreaker loving
u.s. male douche bag
tugging on this arab girl’s wrist
right here on a sunny autumn street
telling her to take off her hijab
if she knows what’s good for her

but it is happening

i’m serious about this

this is going on right now on a regular block in brooklyn, new york
in america in the twenty-first century

less than a week to election day

and four days after another annual
once-in-a-lifetime-hurricane

that has them still plucking bodies out of soaked basements

with another storm
on the way.