I cannot climb a telephone pole
to take thick green glass insulators
be a thief of conversations not my own
purely because the color caught my magpie gaze
she did this far too frequently and so
stern-faced men in dark official suits
knocked on our red door to tell her to stop
she just smiled at them and said of course
I knew she was not sorry because she laughed
and threw one of the domes at the door
when I would visit after I escaped
I would see the gash in the blood-like paint
a mocking reminder of her power to flaunt any rule
he never repaired it, and I wondered
if sometimes she scared him too
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