Into my Pocket
Into my Pocket
Original Text
Gary Barwin, Raising Eyebrows
(Toronto: Coach House Press, 2001): 83.
1things are more like they are now than they ever were before
2the streets are safe
3it's only the people that make them dangerous
5but outside of the killings
6we have the lowest crime rate
7look, I know that if you're killed
8you've lost a very important part of your life
9I myself have never committed a crime
10I have only failed to speak the law
11I stand by what I have done
12and sleep in a big bed
13knowing all the promises I intend to keep
14I have kept
15in my pocket there is a special phone
16what my grandmother always said
17I say unto my pocket
18I did not call them to create disorder
19I called them to preserve disorder
20without censorship
21things get terribly confused in the public mind
22they deserve to be kicked by a jackass
23and I am just the one to do it
24what you don't hurt can't know you
Notes
4] Alcatraz: an island in San Francisco Bay that had a notorious prison until 1963. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form
Special Copyright
Copyright © Gary Barwin and used by permission of the poet. Authorization to republish this poem must be obtained from him in writing.