[Newspoetry] Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Alien Intruder, Alert!

[DL Emerick]

New York Starts to Inspect Bags on the Subways
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072205A.shtml
Police in New York City began random searches last night of backpacks and packages carried by commuters on the city's subways and on area rail lines, in the broadest such search that officials can recall.


Strolling down the streets
on the sidewalks of New York,
my Eastern side cloaked
my Western sided bonnet,
all around the fabulous town,
where the Bronx cheers are up,
and the batteries are run down --
and the assault weapons, too.

Unreasonable searches
of bag ladies and bag men
and winos sprawling on grates,
sleeping off the cheap wines,
sleeping on glass carpets,
sleeping on hot sidewalks,
sleeping on park benches,
wherever sleep is level.

Whom shall we round up?
Oh, the usual suspects, Sam,
just the casual street people
who live in cardboard box offices,
selling off the small plays,
more off Broadway than on it,
and certainly as theatrical
as spear Shekels to spare Ritz.

The line-up is longer now,
profiles and visages grim,
facelessness rules randomly,
providing a quality check,
statistically speaking,
so we shall know by our sample,
how ample are the terrorists.

A spot check in a spot light;
surely limey-light's shining
anywhere but there on the square
where the Times descend to us,
in glowing balls each New Year,
and we wonder who let the Cats
out of the bombings bags, Dad?