“i am your worst nightmare”
—black man to white
this is that dream I wake from
crying, then clutch my sleeping wife
and rock her until i fall again
onto a battlefield. there,
they surround me, nations of darkness
speaking a language i cannot understand
and i suspect that something about
my life they know and hate and i hate them
for knowing it so well. my son,
i think about my son, my golden daughter,
and as they surround me, nearer, nearer,
i reach to pick up anything,
a tool, a stick, a weapon and
something begins to die. this
is that dream.
(powell was one of the officers
who beat rodney king.)
