They said i was an alternate,
so I thought like an alternate
Answered black when asked where is the nearest bathroom, guilty as charged when the barista called the name I made up, only half-expecting judgment My new way I mostly liked until the bailiff said, “silence your cellphones” or “you have the right to remain silent,” to which I felt compelled to raise my right hand |
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Nathan McClain is the author of Scale (Four Way Books, 2017), a recipient of fellowships from Sewanee Writers’ Conference, The Frost Place, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and a graduate of Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers. His poems and prose have recently appeared or are forthcoming in New York Times Magazine, Poem-a-Day, West Branch Wired, The Common, and upstreet, among others. He teaches at Hampshire College.