From an Ironic, Scary Part of the World

While watching _Hotel Rwanda_ last night
and gaping at the horrors and atrocities of the UN,
asking all the while what my own personal role is on the global stage,
in Dufar,

our neighborhood Police D.A.R.E. Officer
was being shot dead on the streets a couple blocks away
by a young man who, ironically, fits the discription
of the very same type of youth this Officer had been trying to reach
for the past 18 years of his career.

The suspect, early 20s, is on foot,
still at large.
His discription? "He is either a very dark skinned white man,
or he is a light skinned black man."
I cannot help but wonder if such racial descriptions
have followed this young man all of his life,
if such racial remarks are part of what led this very young man
to this very night
to end all nights for himself and this community's
well respected D.A.R.E. Officer.

I can hear the choppers flying overhead.
And we have been advised to stay in doors.