wordsout by godfrey rust
< Poems I'd like to have written >

i surrender!

Criminal tendencies
by Mike Bartholomew-Biggs

I was talking in my sleep to this policeman.
What it is, he said, is this. You trust your 
     judgement.
You get real close in up against your suspect
then you lean on him
(and here he rubbed his face on mine)
and you notice his reaction.
You can always tell the guilty ones.
Does it stand up well in court? He didn't answer
but applied his cheek again and I could feel
reactions that were asking to be noticed.
So I made an effort.
What I want to know, I said,
is how many of the people
get to pass your test and walk away?
None of them, he smiled, and that's the point.
That's the way we know we've got it right.

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