streetcar incident 504

 

when the smiling lady tells me

that she has seen dalmatians

fall from the sky i want to correct

her saying dalmatians don’t fall

out of open sky     but as i turn

my head to see the hard faces

of other passengers i begin

to believe her     why wouldn’t

dalmatians fall out of the sky?  why

not?  especially since it can rain

cats and dogs and maybe the drugs some

white-frocked medic gave her at

one of those institutions that spew

folk onto the street unprotected

were not the right ones for riding

a streetcar day in night out     maybe

the doc and nurse cursed when they

let their patient go     and maybe

they wanted to take notes and

publish fancy images of fire dogs

pushing stars out of the heavens