Breaking the Law

Janis Rapoport
From:   Winter Flowers. Hounslow, 1979

did you know you are he said
breaking the law? she said
the rules for vehicular traffic
apply to motorcycles, bicycles as well he read
you mean I didn't she began
stop he continued
the sign is standard throughout
ten provinces, its shape octagonal,
colour red; on the top and the bottom
approximately three inches from the
edge (the white not the red)
metal rivulets --
that glow in the dark she offered
he deepened we're ticketing all the
youngsters; by the way, are
you major or minor; where's your proof of
age? she queried I'm old enough to be your
mother? he said the fine
twenty-three dollars
that's half what I paid for this second-hand bike
you'll go to court he threatened
I've witnesses;
so she snaps off a wheel, sets
its spokes spinning a collar round
his mushroom head;
when ready to unicycle home
she flips out a newly sharpened knife
gently castrating him instead.

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Janis Rapoport's works copyright © to the author.