Heading home we are
in an alley with a sign at it's mouth
that said no left turns
so we did the right thing
and saved ourselves a few cents of gas
and turned left
directly into a drug deal.
Their headlights were in our eyes
the same way the prize was in theirs
and we waited
while he went back into his house
to get the money after
talking over the terms or
maybe reiterating
that the code talk in text messages
was real, because it is all
nonsense banter
until you are staring down
the straight away
box cutters at the ready
should something be more askew than it
already is.
We waited and
waited and I got itchy
watching it go down. Video card artifacts
for other times and
the car backed out of our way,
the gent retreated with an upheld end of a
bargain and the world
kept on turning
rather peacefully and he breathed
a sigh of relief
for the three of us
between wood picket fences
on a street none of us had business being on
while snow fell and cats balled themselves
into ear wax colored cotton balls
beneath street lights.
