Why I place pictures of myself everywhere I go 

by Husayn Carnegie 

On Tuesdays, my father sharpens knives.
One of many oddities
delaying our American assimilation.
The neighbors,
whose bathroom overlooks our kitchen,
have had many uneasy stools eyeing Charles decrease
the friction coefficient
between thirteen points of steel
and cubes of curried goat.

Jimmy Cliff plays 
as he whets each blade, 
but how are they to know 
it’s not just bass 
or probably voodoo 
that’s shaking all the windows 
and making our house jive, 
and no Reagan-loving house 
would jive, so 

one day they call the cops. 
and I, twelve years old 
awake at gunpoint
to who are you 
or more like WHO ARE YOU! 
and all my Jack London books 
thrown to the ground. 

I asked who they were 
not out of insolence 
just honest, squinty confusion 
only this did not go over well 
and I had to keep saying 
I’m the one in the pictures 
the kid from all the pictures. 

all the while thinking 
Thank God 
this isn’t Tuesday, 
Thank God there are no knives

Husayn Carnegie Senior. CAS. Fantastic tree climber. Loves mango juice. Likes the books “Ubik and Point Counter Point.”