THE RUNAWAY

In the last analysis
a Beat poet tells me
we have learned alone
to dress,shave or kiss
trying to behave
outside bus stops
needing a good Samaritan
more than cops
to heal his wounds
from complacency
for any job
from Job's counselors
to hire for dollars
only in language
does he express desire,
every agency holding him
up for good behavior
a friend named Judas
hardly his savior
as the blood moon's eye
closes to inherit
a brief time on earth
in skinny darkness
needing more time
to commit an offense
called the crime of birth
or getting up by living high,
his black eye is circled
death has no formality
in a devil's trill
of a family or society
eating a French bread
with sunflower seeds
jumping between bicycles
in a no man's land
with No Parking signs
he steals at night
to each according
to his needs or condition
on route 66
of your apparition.