TRAFFIC STOP
The officer asked, Do you know why
I pulled you over? So I tried to explain about the correlation
between an unhappy childhood and the need
to pull, about how Elon Musk invented Teslas
because we’re all characters
in Grand Theft Auto, about needing to outrun
my future, but he wanted to see my license and registration
so I pointed at his chest with my gold finger (in the shape of a gun)
showed him the Valentine’s cards stuffed in my glovebox
handed him a snapshot of my border collie at the beach
because a badge needs a quota like a chew toy
needs a puppy, but he asked me to step
out of the car, put the world in a backwards spell,
touch my eyes with my nose
closed, so I put on my blue
shoes, walked heel to toe,
cartwheeled for the crowd, asked
if he could share his body-
cam video on my wall, which is to say I promised
to donate a kidney for the Policeman’s Ball, which is to say I signed
his autograph book
and as he rolled away, the radio played,
there will be an answer, let it be, let it be.
—from Rattle #73, Fall 2021
Tribute to Indian Poets
__________
Pankaj Khemka: “I was originally born in Nagpur. After my family emigrated to the United States, I became a physician, specializing in infectious diseases. My cultural influences, both Eastern and Western, color my poetry in the way I see first-world problems from a more holistic perspective.”
