Unlawful

It wasn’t the constant sniffing … coke head, what do you expect?
Or the clothes, ever seen a well-dressed junkie?
Or the furtive look,
man, people like that, they’ve been in the woods so long,
they just are hunted.
Or that he always turned up every second Tuesday –
“welfare day, mate”
handed over the cash
and bought stolen booze
paying with his unemployment cheque undoubtedly.
On seller probably, or on swapper
swapping top shelf Scotch
for bottom grade Thai.

No, she said, it was the car
only one headlight worked
often drove up at dusk
then away – half lit.
She told him it should be fixed
always laughed that addict’s laugh … and said he would
always said next time he’d meant to –
but ….
then laughed that spacey laugh again.
Brilliant she said
made us think he was ditzy druggie, not an undercover cop.