I Coulda Had a G8!

Gone are the sirens and flashes of light

Gone are the helicopters, chopping noise through the muggy sky

Gone is the cell phone's fractured reception

Gone is the cluster of armored buses before a fortified city hall,

soon to be reclaimed by the breakdancers and para-para drones

Gone are the solitary cops, walking beneath the bridges like Victorian-era whores,

making you want to look but not be seen looking

Gone are the farrowed cops, a Baker's dozen in every neighborhood

Gone are the streets barricaded with your tax money

Gone are the trash bins sealed like dirty secrets

Gone is the fear of being stopped for being whitey on a bike

Gone, gone, because gone too are Condi and her seven friends.

On the turntable: Thelonious Monk, "The Complete Riverside Recordings"

On the nighttable: Edith Shiffert, "Kyoto Dwelling'

On the reel table: "Jean de Florette" ( Berri, 1986)