Thinking American

By Hayan Charara b. 1972 Hayan Charara

—For Dioniso D. Martínez

Take Detroit, where boys

are manufactured into men, where

you learn to think in American.

You speak to no one unless someone

speaks to you. Everyone is suspect:

baldheaded carriers from the post office;

old Polish ladies who swear

to Jesus, Joseph, and Mary;

your brother, especially your brother,

waiting in a long line for work.

There’s always a flip side.

No matter what happens,

tomorrow is a day away,

or a gin bottle if you can’t sleep,

and if you stopped drinking,

a pack of cigarettes. After that,

you’re on your own, you pack up

and leave. You still call

the city beside the strait home.

Make no mistake, it’s miserable.

After all, you bought a one-way

Greyhound ticket, cursed each

and every pothole on the road out.

But that’s where you stood

before a mirror in the dark,

where you were too tired

to complain. You never go back.

Things could be worse. Maybe.

Detroit is a shithole, it’s where

you were pulled from the womb

into the streets. Listen,

when I say Detroit, I mean any place.

By thinking American, I mean made.

Source: The Alchemist’s Diary (Hanging Loose Press, 2001)

Biography

The son of Lebanese immigrants, Hayan Charara grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He earned a BA in English from Wayne State University, an MA in humanities from New York University, and a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston. He is the author of the poetry collections The Alchemist’s Diary (2001) and The Sadness of Others (2006). His work often explores family, loss, identity, and the experience of . . .

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