did you see him,
the stranger,
coming  
crotch rocketing  
down your tree lined street?  
did you see the child  
his sandy hair splayed
by his own journey  
flying through the dusk  
pedaling his bike pell-mell to eternity,
or the end of the block  
where his father stood akimbo,
talking soccer, while mother
washed the windows of her SUV  
did you recognize the whine
of accelerating RPMs bouncing
off the safe houses,
the cleansed castles
where time’s dust was chased away  
by growing mutual funds  
and manicured hands
before it had time gather
as dust ultimately must  
did you see him  
coming
to spoil your story  
with a mangled pile  
of flesh and Tommy Hilfiger
so far from the desert bombs  
your labors paid to build  
did you hear the sound
of your own breath when  
you ran to see    
or did the screams
of all the mothers
of all the stars  
awaken you from a dream  
did you sleep that night
without the sight of white death  
in the fields of suburbia  
far from where blood
was written to be spilled
by darker skin under blackened skies  
forever invisible to your eyes?