They Smile

 They walk confidently

But I’ll say they stumbled

Without the stumble

You can’t pretend

They were inebriated

But if someone saw them

Have a drink

At the bar

Even one drink

An argument can be made

That they were drunk

Their friends will say they weren’t

Their friends will say they could hold their alcohol

Their friends will say the bar

They were drinking at

Was nowhere near the docks

The ones who were drunk

Will argue that their friends were too drunk
To ever make it to the docks

Miles away

That they were closer to home

That they could get home even when drunk

That they were getting into an Uber

That they were happy

Not upset

And that their lives

Were going so well

That they wouldn’t want to hurt themselves

And that nobody else

Would want to hurt them either

That they didn’t have enemies

That they were well-liked

That anything bad

That would happen to them

Would have to be random

And because that word

Enters the conversation

The word ‘random’

Everything shifts

In what they’re saying

To the police

To the media

‘Random’ is what causes a panic

And so we talk about

The stumble

The drunkenness

The depression

The hurt

The fact that they’d just been broken up with
Even though kids in college

Get broken up with

Every other day

And very few wind up floating in a river

Face down

Hands out

With ligature marks

All along their neck

A story is concocted

That will not have men thinking

They’re in danger

Because while young women
Are used to living in a state

Of fear

If men were forced

To live in that same state

There’d be rioting in the streets

Men would not be able

To live with the fear

Especially not young white men
Who, while not at the top of the food chain,

Perceive themselves to be alphas

And will not stand for anything

That shakes that perception

They walk along the docks

And we see them

And it’s their alpha mentality

That we enjoy

We take it in

The way they walk

The way they walk through the world

With a carefree nature

As though nothing and nobody can hurt them

We know that tomorrow

Or the next day

In the newspaper

It’ll say they were stumbling

When they left the bar

It’ll say they were slurring their words

It’ll confuse the number of drinks they had

Was it one?
Was it five?
Who can say?

There are very few times

When the agreed-upon approach

To a story

By the police and the media

Is that it would be better

To tamp everything down

And find the calmest explanations

But this is one of those times

And it’s not because of the predator

It’s because of the victims

And the other potential victims

And what those people would do

The moment they realized

That they were capable

Of being victimized

We watch them walk

Along the docks

And when we approach them

They’ll smile

And that’s what bothers us

The most

That even when they’re impaired

And alone

And vulnerable

They see a stranger

And all they can think to do

Is smile