Parking Lot, Too by Reginald Dwane Betts

Titus Kaphar - State number 2 (Dwayne Betts), 2019

Parking Lot, Too by Reginald Dwayne Betts

 

A confession began when I walked out of that parking lot.

A confession began when I walked Black out of that parking lot.

A confession began when I, without combing my hair, dressed

For a day that would find me walking out of that parking lot.

There is so much to be said of a Black man with unkempt hair:

He meets the description of the suspect; suspect is running.

I ran away from things far less frightening than the police.

A confession began when I robed myself in black. A confession

Began when I walked out of that parking lot wearing a black

Hoodie. Things get exponentially worse when a hoodie is pulled

Over my unkempt air. A confession began when I walked out

Of that parking lot Black. A confession began when I walked

Out of that parking lot a Negro. A confession begins when

That nigga walked into the parking lot. A confession begins

When that nigga & the pistol he carries like a dick walked

Into that parking lot. A confession begins when everything you

See him doing is seen as sex. A confession begins when

That nigga walked into a parking lot & drove away with everything

Belonging to that white man. A confession begins when

My mother laid up with a man the complexion of that nigga's

Daddy. A confession begins when my mother births a child

In a city close enough to make me & that nigga almost related.

A confession begins when the police perceive us as one. We must

Be one. He could not have walked in & driven out & I walked

In & walked out on the same night & whatever gaps in the story

& slight differences in the features of our faces was just

More evidence that niggers will lie. A confession begins even if

I didn't have the fucking car. A confession begins, my confession

Began, with a woman stitching stars and stripes into a flag.

 

—From Felon, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.