billie run

by Leeroy Berlin

william reginald henderson iii, esquire:
we called him billie.
he hated it
running from switching lights
a grim threat
to cut our time
over the unfenced earth
with scythes electric arched
across the street from side to walk
chasing us back
into the safety of verdant bulwarks that
stood between
endless
enveloping
wastes
and stucco temples to
silent sorrows
we feared would never let us free
from the suzerainty
of bars over our windows
and our parents' fear
of what else came on in the dark.