couple fighting in the street, man and woman
both flashing steel, three kids with scabbed scalps
in the waiting room, another with an oozing
iron burn and I’m called back
to the hospital for another
crack baby and an old man’s waiting
in a battered jeep blasting
john lee hooker on an eight track
and now it’s a limping squirrel I don’t hit
and r.l. burnside’s on my car radio and I see
it’s a goddamn sunny day
