Alive by Elinor Mattern

Alive
for Breonna Taylor

I have been driving this car with no
inspection sticker ever since I bought it
last year, and I have not been pulled over.

I have watched birds in the park
and no one called the cops on me,
no one asked me why I was there.

I unlock my own house with my
own key and no one accuses me
of trying to break in.

I go to sleep in my own bed
at night and
I wake up in the morning.

I have danced and walked and talked
in many neighborhoods
that were not my own.

I’ve gone into convenience stores, I’ve
taken a nap in my car, had worry beads
and air fresheners hanging from my
rear view,

I have played my radio too loud. I have
failed to signal a lane change. I have
been stopped for a broken taillight.
Headlight.

For speeding. Sometimes
I have gotten a ticket, and sometimes
I have not.

But I have driven away.
Every damned time.

Artist, educator, and poet Elinor Mattern teaches many aspects of creative writing on a freelance basis, after retiring from teaching English at Atlantic Cape Community College. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and her poems and non-fiction have appeared in numerous journals and newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Paterson Literary Review, and Tiferet, A Journal of Spiritual Poetry.