Editor’s note: this poem quotes, verbatim, homophobic and racist language overheard in the street. It is kept exactly as it appeared in the original AEQAI publication, as an archival quotation; the language does not reflect the views of AEQAI or The Annex Updated.

Overheard on the Corner of Broadway & Main, Lexington, Kentucky

Overheard on the street
in front of Starbuck’s with
a lb. of just ground Sumatra
fresh in my nose,
a weathered drunk screaming
to no one in particular
“We don’t need no machine
to tell us what to do.
We live in Lexington, Kentucky
where the fucken fags
give it to our niggas in the ass.”
In the time it took me
to unlock my bike
he screamed it four times
in fast succession.

April 23, 2014