Bullshit watch your sister be arrested
for daring to dance her jay-stunting
across the street be next to her but say
nothing because this ain’t Footloose
and you will always be a coward
instead just be thankful for the iphones
filming for women with stronger
forearms for men with bigger
voices think instead about your next
drink don’t be thinking
about every other time
you were not brave
don’t be thinking I am a teacher
sometimes I even smile at cops
I can win this one over with kind reason
he is bald white short
his uniform has come untucked
be close enough to see cliché
sweat on his upper lip be brave
be brave you think about anything but
boot scrape baton clatter police-grade
mace your own knee’s crunch
against storefront signpost stumbling away
I could be blind what if I am
blind forever you think
why am I mouthing Excuse me Sir?
Ben Kingsley is best known for his Academy Award winning role as Mahatma Gandhi. A touch less famous, Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley has not acted since his third-grade debut as the undertaker in Music Man. A Kundiman and UPenn alumni, Ben is currently the 22nd Tickner Writing Fellow and recipient of a Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellowship as well as scholarships from Tin House, Sewanee & VONA. He belongs to the Onondaga Nation of Indigenous Americans in New York. In 2017, his work can be found in the Iowa Review, Narrative, Ninth Letter, PANK, PEN America, the Poetry Review, & Prairie Schooner, among others.