Piker Press — Weekly Journal of Arts and Literature
March 16, 2026

Where were you last night?

By Frederick Foote

Where were you last night?

Where were you last night?
I was restricted to my dorm due to an active shooter alert.

Where were you last night?
I sneaked into my office at the museum to save the civil rights files my boss ordered destroyed.

Where were you last night?
An ICE roadblock in downtown Minneapolis delayed me for hours. I slept in my car.

Where were you last night?
I was in jail because I wrote and published an article for the school paper critical of Israel.

Where were you last night?
I took an extra night shift at the factory so we could cover the rent this month.

Where were you last night?
I was back in Gaza, and I cried as I slept on the ground. I was so glad to be home.

Where were you last night?
I don’t know. After ten years in the NFL, I have had many nights like this.

Where were you last night?
I was sleeping in a bathtub of cold water so I wouldn’t get heat stroke.

Where were you last night?
I was sleeping in my car just like the last 300 nights.

Where were you last night?
I was sleeping in a church basement in Odesa, Ukraine, to avoid a Russian drone attack.

Where were you last night?
In a woman’s shelter with my kids for the third time this year.

Where were you last night?
On my bathroom floor. I slipped and fell, and I couldn’t crawl out of the bathroom.

Where were you last night?
In a $3,000 coffin for an $8,000 funeral that no one in my family can afford.







Article © Frederick Foote. All rights reserved.
Published on
Image(s) are public domain.
2 Reader Comments
Mark
02/17/2026
08:31:27 PM
Thank you for sharing this, Fred.
You have painted a very dark--and accurate--picture of where we stand at this moment.
Leslie Thompson
02/19/2026
11:20:14 AM
Fred, I think your poem really nails the state of things today in the United States. I enjoyed it a lot!
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