Very Sorry

shitty underground mall

beside the train station

with dim corner liquor store

the kind with the bulletproof glass,

and an A&P.

don't think sexy Updike girls

in nothing but bathing suits

with the straps down,

think ghetto weaves

smell unwashed body

wrapped in newspaper

with whipped cream cans

and vaseline

in his stolen shopping cart

a white teenager and a black teenager

walk into the main hallway

a gang comes right to them

out of the shadows

all ghetto walk and strut

and bumps the white one

knocks him to the ground

a gun is on him, in his face

the first gun he's ever had in his face

"Say you're sorry," says the voice

attached to hand, attached to gun

attached to racing heartbeat

the strings that make the whole marionette go

are in place

"I'm sorry."