Resisting Arrest in Warren, RI

[CalebMurdock]

Resisting Arrest in Warren, RI

The bell rings. A policeman is at my door.
I lean out a second-floor window to talk.
He won’t tell me why he’s here.
What does he want? He won’t say.
He tells me to come downstairs,
to open my door, but why must this,
whatever it is, be said face to face?
He already has my attention.
Visions of being Tasered fill my head,
of being wrestled to the ground;
I can feel the sharp pain of flex cuffs
cutting into my delicate writer’s wrists.

I think this fellow is one of the town’s
new hires, straight from the police academy,
where they teach the cadets to distrust
the public. Whatever he thinks I’ve done,
I’m guilty. I can see it in his face.
But I won’t budge from my second-floor perch,
and that annoys him. I look down on him,
defiant, and he doesn’t like that.

I’m too pretty to be beaten today,
so I ask again, What do you want?
He won’t say. This is when the threats begin.
He says I’ll get in trouble if I don’t comply.
He says he will “leave” and then “return”
with “something” that will allow him to break
my door down. (A warrant perhaps? Hopefully
not a battering ram.) But for what? Why?
What did I do??? He won’t say. I quote
the Constitution, but he isn’t fazed.

I can see him in court:

Cop: .... I need a warrant to break into the house
.......... of someone who won’t open his door.
Judge: . But what did he do?
Cop: .... I can’t say.

Finally I get fed up. I slam the window shut.
I call the police station while he rings
my doorbell thirty times. (He can’t make me obey,
but he’ll burst my ear drums if he can!)
They tell me a neighbor reported me
for trespassing, though all I did was knock
on her door to make a complaint.
I bark at them and tell them what’s what,
then write an angry email and pen a poem.
Old poets with complaints are so dangerous
to society that we must be contained.

☙

[BobBradshaw]

Hilarious

[Billy]

Good, funny poem with a hint of universal frustration with injustice.

Your poem inspired me to post one of my run-ins with the law. I might post some other ones if I can find time to write at the moment.

[CalebMurdock]

Thank you, Bob and Billy. It seems you both like it, and that makes me feel good. I'm finding that not many publications want poems about the police, but I'm sure I'll place it eventually. The incident happened in 2019, but I wrote this in 2023.

I hope your run-ins with the law weren't too awful, Billy. I just saw a news report about the Alabama deputies -- the "Good Squad" -- which tortured citizens. I have little love of the police.

Thanks again!