Eric D. Goodman

BLACK NECK BLUE

Some say it was the weight of the knee,
but you and I know better—

it’s the weight of centuries,
bruises pressed deep upon black skin.

We watch from across the street,
from behind window blinds and screen doors,
using smartphones to record rather than report.

And report to who, when the attackers
are those intended to protect?

Watch Floyd’s face go blue,
stale air becoming harder to breathe,
as though blue and black haven’t been
sharing streets and skin
longer than this country has existed.

There on the street, black neck blue,
gasping voice calling for his mother,
echoing the howls of other men,

their faces pressed to the ground,
struggling for breath
beneath the weight of that same relentless knee.


Eric's YouTube video reading of "Black Neck Blue"

ERIC D. GOODMAN is author of Faraway Tables (Yorkshire Publishing, 2024), Wrecks and Ruins (Loyola University's Apprentice House Press, 2022), The Color of Jadeite (Apprentice House Press, 2020), Setting the Family Free (Apprentice House, 2019), Womb: a novel in utero (Merge Publishing, 2017), Tracks: A Novel in Stories (Atticus, 2011), and Flightless Goose (Writer's Lair, 2008).

Faraway Tables by Eric D. Goodman

Yorkshire Publishing released Five-Two alum Eric D. Goodman's first poetry collection, Faraway Tables October 1. Visit the link to read advance praise and purchase the book.

See What I Mean? by Charles Rammelkamp

Frequent contributor Charles Rammelkamp's latest Kelsay Books release, See What I Mean?, includes his 2013 Five-Two poem "The Day Sadat Died" and is blurbed by Bob Cooperman and Eric D. Goodman.

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.

Eric D. Goodman

VICTIMLESS

Sorting through relics in the attic,
I come across the dusty box,
wonder why I kept the evidence all these years.
I smile at the frightened adolescent I was.

I knew they were coming for me,
that it was only a matter of time
before an agent would reveal himself
from behind a tree, around a corner.

A man in a skinny tie on a park bench,
a woman in a dark pantsuit on the city bus,
even a sidewalk jogger with Walkman and headphones—
all potential apprehenders.

They knew what I’d done,
knew I’d been warned that my crime wasn’t victimless.
No amount of feigning innocence
would lessen my prison sentence.

I have to laugh now, looking back,
as I open the box and peruse,
wonder where I can find an old VCR
for a glimpse of those jittery FBI warnings.


Eric/s YouTube video reading of "Victimless":



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Eric confesses: "True to the action in the poem, I really did come across an old box of VHS tapes. My kids, living in a streaming world, were a little surprised by the jittery FBI warnings at the beginning of the tapes--especially since some of them were dubbed copies. I imagined a young person losing sleep over a pirated movie, paranoid that the FBI was tracking him down, anticipating an arrest. There may be no such thing as a victimless crime, but there certainly are degrees of severity."

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.

Eric D. Goodman

GULP

here they come,
closing in

where’s my key

it’s not that

i’m afraid

not that

i fear their punches,
or the cut of their knives

their requests for money
or demands for my wallet

it’s not that

i fear looking them in the eyes
and saying

this is how it is
i don’t have any change
i only carry my platinum amex

no

it’s just that

i don’t want to
put down my
big gulp


Eric's YouTube video reading of "Gulp":



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Eric confesses: "'Gulp' is more about the anticipation of crime than its occurrence, inspired by that recurring city situation of being approached for money. At the gas pump, outside convenient stores, in the streets, time and time again a person or small group of people approach. The feeling is multifaceted: fear that the request may spill into violent demand; guilt if the request hits just right but you don't have cash on hand. And overshadowing it all: the crime that someone needs to ask in the first place."

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.