This poem is part of a cycle of poems narrated by the black kidnapper Susan Smith invented to cover up the killing of her two small sons. He "lives" for the nine days before Smith confesses.

Who Am I?
Cornelius Eady

Who are you, mister?
One of the boys asks
From the eternal back seat,
And here is the one good thing:
If I am alive, then so, briefly are they,
Two boys returned, three and one,
Quiet and scared, bunched together
Breathing like small beasts.
They can't place me, yet there's
Something familiar.
Though my skin and sex are different, maybe
It's the way I drive
Or occasionally glance back
With concern,
Maybe it's the mixed blessing
Someone, perhaps circumstance,
Has given us,
The secret thrill of hiding
Childish, in plain sight,
Seen, but not seen,
As if suddenly given the power
To move through walls,
To know every secret without permission.
We roll sleepless through the dark streets, but inside
The cab is lit with brutal imagination.

Who am I? Copyright ©2001 by Cornelius Eady. Reprinted from Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady (A Marian Wood Book/G.P. Putnam's Sons). Used by permission of the author