LEXICON in Postcards 4

i
On a first date I asked,
what do you do for a living
and there was silence.
I asked again,
socially,
just to fill the empty spaces
before he said
pornography
with a pause
child pornography,
do you mind?

ii

Once painting a house
for a distinguished government man
I pulled a bed out from the wall only
to discover soft padded metal rings
chained on every corner
what are these I asked
not socially for I was really curious.
I didn’t need to know, he told me,
hiding the padded handcuffs
deep under the covers.

iii

All socialization gone
I yelled foul mouthed
fear filled obscenities
when homeboys in their stolen car
ran the little sedan straight at me
no divergence, no variation in line
just the screech of the oil pan
the spray of hot oil
hissing onto the street
as it hit the tall barrio curb.

Not thinking
they meant to kill me,
not thinking of the pain
the deviations
the small deaths
then,

today my ignorance’s frighten me.