experience

around 2:30 in the AM one morning in the middle of
the midwest
upon leaving his office after studying for exams up until the
last moment
he decided to take an alternate route when walking back to his apartment---
a shorter street would bring him back quicker than
going the long way.

it begins with what most will perceive as “innocent” inquiry &
on the night in question
while making his way on the opposite side of the street,
a young man in his early twenties called out to him.

turning his head towards the left he noticed 5 white boys---
it is important to point out that they were in fact white
as african-american males are blamed at the outset by this country
whenever violence is mentioned in a news story & the race/ethnicity of
said attacker(s) is not stated from the very beginning.

there were two sitting in the back of a green pickup truck which
had no cap,
one was still in the cab at the wheel & two had made their way onto the
street,
approaching the man on his way home
who still was standing on the opposite side of the street.

one of the two on the street had asked the man walking a question, but
they’d done so with not much amplification,
so as to force anyone who would have been curious
to ask again---
so, the man walking asked & in doing so, he paused from walking and
faced the two walking casually towards him.

“hey, do you know where Melanie St. is?” said one of the 5 & the man
replied that he didn’t know, that he wasn’t from around there
(as he was a student, only living in this part of the country to further his education)---
the whole while noticing that the two who had been in the back of the pickup truck now were slowly making their way around behind him,
with only one guy still at the wheel of the truck,
the man who had been walking home, undisturbed, now had four circling him.

the next comment or question offered by the man who asked where Melanie St. is
was never fully heard by the man who had been walking because at the moment it was
uttered
an uppercut to the chin came simultaneously,
and down the man went to the ground as the 4 swarmed him & began to punch him &
kick him relentlessly.

the man getting beaten curled up into a ball,
with his hands covering his head, instinctively---
the pain from all the blows was so quick & deep that it seemed to
numb him the whole time as his body spent its energy on
screaming as loud as he could,
but it is important to note that on this suburban back street in the midwest,
many lights went on
but not one person even opened the door to help the man being
beaten.

the punches & kicks seemed to polka-dot all over the man
screaming in the fetus position,
and while it seemed as if it would go on for eternity,
the whole matter really only lasted a few minutes---
the four doing the beating were laughing & making sounds of
violent
fight
(even if it was directed one-way, without any retaliation)---
they did not even make a move for his wallet or
verbally demand anything.

and then it ended for a moment &
the man being beaten, who had been a sprinter in high school
(won some stupid ribbon dealing with the 200 meter dash---
his best event),
hurled himself up & tore away from them as quickly as a human being attacked will,
if they want to stay
alive.

into the night he booked,
but he did not run straight to his apartment for fear that they would follow---
instead,
he turned left after covering a couple of blocks & dove down into a group of
bushes that seemed to decorate someone’s abode---
there, he crouched down, trying to catch his breath,
holding onto his side, having no idea what damage had actually been done.

in the near distance he heard the truck peel out and make its way down the same
street that he had just sprinted down---
the headlights zoomed past him,
and with that it was all over.

he waited a while,
possibly even ten minutes,
and then slowly getting up, he walked in the direction of where he actually lived---
when he got inside his apartment he went straight to the sink in his bathroom.

the sink,
which had been as scummy as a single man’s usually is, when all they do is study,
had been cleaned earlier that day in what one can only call a
spontaneous moment of self-appreciation.

it was white & sparkly,
and the man threw his hands down on the sink,
crouched over, trying to catch his breath &
coughed out a huge splat of blood all over the white sink---
knowing that what had happened to him on the outside had
screwed up his insides
(as revealed by the coughing of a large quantity of blood),
he followed this with calling the
police.

the police came,
did their police thing...
“who, what, where, when,” but with no why,
and then called the ambulance.

off to the emergency room,
he went.