Talented friends...
The Doorbell
Rings Around
Midnight

It's some scrawny jackass
with no shirt,
hair down his back
and one arm around
a bony blonde in a halter top.

"We're looking for
a nekkid guy painted white.
He run out
right in front of my old lady.
Mind we look in your yard?"

"No," I say
closing the door.
"Go head on."
I fasten my pants,
get a beer and go out to watch.

They stumble up
onto my neighbor's porch;
a deaf man
with a young family
who gets his gun.

He sees me when he looks out
through the peephole
and decides against employment
of deadly force.
The idiots give up and leave.

My neighbor gets
to use his gun though;
three weeks later
he cripples his wife
and kills himself.

Daryl Rogers