“What Do You Think of the Riots?” a Tourist Asked Today

Having literally not seen the news
For weeks, having turned my face away

At the moment when it once again
Seemed less and less about a plague, more

And more about one burning dumpster
Of a man, I’ve glimpsed enough headlines

From the corners of averted eyes
To suspect some new terrible thing,

Some acceleration of an old,
Terrible thing has begun. I should

Read all about it. I should. I should.
Once more, I get the distinct feeling

That my quietism shapes a sin,
Is sin, is a sin enabling sins.

I sit in the heat and shade, thinking,
Blood’s always in the water within,

Parasites and predators swimming
Where the blood’s thickest. And if it thins?