NVN Extra: ESCAPE
by Paul Hostovsky
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He crab-walked up and out of there and I can’t help admiring him a little for that especially since they keep replaying it on TV and thousands of cops are combing Pennsylvania and they haven’t found him yet. And I can’t help rooting for him a little as though he were the underdog, and not a killer who stabbed his girlfriend to death in front of her children. My God. They will never get over that. Have you ever found yourself rooting for the wrong side? Crab-walking is moving sort of sideways and diagonally in an awkward, furtive manner. Please pass the popcorn. I wonder if they’ll ever find him. Voyeurism is sort of furtively taking pleasure in disaster, catastrophe, pain, and without ever feeling the pain, or ever getting caught.
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Paul Hostovsky's poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac, and the Best American Poetry blog.