Night Law

the tv flickers if you stand far enough away
you shift weight   left   now right
the world is a wash of fluorescent light
outside    beyond glass    neon
the law book lays open   page 2201
it could say anything   it is 4am
the six pumps outside   stand like soldiers
they wait   you wait   for another car
thirsty for fuel    the law book lays open
a wound    fresh from ritual    feather colors
tea leaves    page 2201
once remembering a different book    palmistry
slight of hand    take money    take
work alone     don't split your take    fools will come
in dead morning hours     seeking advise
take their money     tell them anything
as long as the ear is receptive
smile     behind glass     under artificial lights
page 2201     before the tv light     gray and white
hard bound     rubber dust      highway silence
corn chips     coca cola    candy bars harsh
in fluorescent white     like black print
you are removed      a stand alone      watcher
4am     study hall of the middle income child
your white shirt     your blue name tag
under the bank of cigarettes     video camera
should you be held up     killed     blood
on the tombstone page 2201     for america's
most wanted     your dark fantasy
in this cemetery hour    a promise of ash
wind     the clients will come   the clients' wills come
old men     money green teeth
want your service
5 dollars     pump 6


previously published in Urban Spaghetti

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     Dancing Bear lives in the San Francisco bay area. His poems, art interviews, reviews and photographs have been published in many journals, including New York Quarterly, Zuzu's Petals Quarterly, Slipstream, Rio Grande Review, Pearl, Poetry Motel and Nerve Cowboy. He is Editor-In-Chief of the on-line magazine Disquieting Muses (disquietingmuses.com) and the 1999 winner of the Mindfire Chapbook Contest for his manuscript Blue Hand, later this year a chapbook Atlas(Red Fruit Press) will be released. Dancing Bear is the host of a weekly poetry show "Out of Our Minds" for public supported KKUP 91.5 FM in Cupertino, CA.

Mitakuye oyasin (All my relations),
Dancing Bear