Eric D. Goodman

TWO WRONGS, MAKING A RIGHT

Fleeing the scene, racing gloves still on,
I reach for my bandana on the passenger’s seat
to dab sweat from my brow,

catch the fool crossing my hard right turn,
first with the corner of my eye,
then with the grill of my Charger.

His shocked face pressed to my windshield,
I motion for him to vacate my hood
and he scrambles off.

Police question us,
note that I was going a hair over the limit;
he was jaywalking.

It’s all I can do to keep my cool,
and I think the pedestrian can see it,
understands what I’m capable of.

Not wanting complications,
the jaywalker walks;
the police let me go with a warning.

Some people get all the luck.
Unregistered gun secure in my glove box,
dodging off, tonight, I’m some people.


Eric's YouTube video reading of "Two Wrongs, Making a Right":



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Eric confesses: "Many of us have experienced it: being pulled over by the police for speeding, wondering whether you'll get a warning or a ticket. Some of us have even experienced hitting a jaywalking pedestrian (as a friend of mine once did). I imagined raising the stakes even more: what if getting pulled over for speeding and hitting a pedestrian happened during a getaway, with the smoking gun right in the glovebox? This, and the opportunity to get in the mind of the bad guy in an intense moment, inspired this poem."

ERIC D. GOODMAN is author of The Color of Jadeite (Loyola University’s Apprentice House Press, 2020), Setting the Family Free (Apprentice House Press, 2019), Womb: a novel in utero (Merge Publishing, 2017), Tracks: A Novel in Stories (Atticus, 2011), and Flightless Goose (Writer's Lair, 2008) as well as the forthcoming Wrecks and Ruins.