We were stopped
at a red light, I was in the passenger seat,
and a guy crossing the street looked
at the Buick, then at us, flipped
us the middle finger and said,
Go home, camel jockeys.
However hard I try, I can’t remember
if, then and there, what the guy said
made any difference to me.
I was seven—what did I know
about crisis? As for the guy—
before the light turned green,
my father floored the pedal
and ran him over.
Hayan Charara is the author of Something Sinister (2016), The Sadness of Others (2006), and The Alchemist’s Diary (2001). Hayan is from Detroit, Michigan and is the child of Lebanese immigrants. He is a recipient of the NEA grant for poetry.