Kristen de Kline #159 The day before

the day before Court
ninth appearance not

counting   poets with priors
proliferating   the lawless

chatter deep into the night
invoke the law by daylight

affidavits collected - sworn,
sealed, stamped - they'll do

the trick   your lawyer says
not to worry police case is

flimsy witnesses unreliable
nobody has ever drunken

the whiskey, I can hear my son
playing Supertramp in the shower:
"Crime of the Century"

there are times
when all the world's asleep
dusk before dawn
the questions run too deep
clouds before storms

a lot can happen in a year

she can be talked down off
light-fittings talked up off
train-tracks he can not
wash for five days sit in his
apartment eating foil bags of
potato crisps drinking Corona,
chilled, with lemon wedges,
splintering down
the bottleneck 
gasping
for   air

the lawless chatter

hollow bones
peppermint breath
riffs from Supertramp
bloody well right
bones hollow
breath peppermint

chattering
lawlessly

the day before Court