FILM NOIR 

Ransom note said
meet you at midnight
under the neon
windmill.  Now

the brown sky sags.
Leaves hang from wet trees
like little trench coats--
He's in big trouble.

An ashtray:
smoke seeps from a cigarette
trying to escape,

and everyone's got an alibi but him.

The girl--she
always knows
what to say
and telling lies gets easier, the more you practice.

Will he come to love
the beauty of three words
said in a single breath?

The Law
guns the engine and waits for him
in his dreams

until screaming night-cars chase him
into wide-awake.
His hope is for a narrow escape.

And you,
you are the Dream of Law,
desiring what you desire most,
a spectator to spectacular play.

 
It must change.