Born a Crime

released, ten before democracy
finally came, yet she was preparing
me to live a life of freedom long
before we knew freedom would
exist. A hard life in the township or
a trip to the colored orphanage were
the far more likely options on the
table. But we never lived that way.
We only moved forward and we
always moved fast, and by the time
the law and everyone else came
around we were already miles down
the road, flying across the freeway
in a bright-orange, piece-of-shit
Volkswagen with the windows
down and Jimmy Swaggart praising
Jesus at the top of his lungs.