On Running Through an Unfamiliar Neighborhood the Day After Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers Are Charged with a Hate Crime

the air is heavy but I have time this morning so I run
down Massachusetts Route 66 until I take a left on an unfamiliar street

half a block in a car passes me and then stops
why I don’t know. my mind flashes to the video

of Ahmaud Arbery running through his neighborhood in Georgia
until three white men in two trucks trap and shoot him

why did this gray sedan pause in the middle of the street?
maybe the driver stopped for an animal?

the car drives on and I continue running lost in my thoughts
until I see a kid on a bicycle with training wheels

when he sees me, he gets off and runs into his house
maybe he had to pee? he couldn’t be alarmed by me, could he?

eventually, I turn the corner and come across a “Black Lives Matter” sign
and two houses later a “Pro-Black and Pro-Police” sign

these make political sense in Western Mass but then I remember
Asian Americans aren’t part of the narrative

even if one is on your street