Hysterical Strength

When I hear news of a hitchhiker

struck by lightning yet living,

or a child lifting a two-ton sedan

to free his father pinned underneath,

or a camper fighting off a grizzly

with her bare hands until someone,

a hunter perhaps, can shoot it dead,

my thoughts turn to black people—

the hysterical strength we must

possess to survive our very existence,

which I fear many believe is, and

treat as, itself a freak occurrence.