By: Lisa Marie Basile
the defendant came through the attic door from the roof
it didn't matter he had a restraining order
he preceded to shave his eyebrows in the dark
he begged us not to let the police in
he begged us to forgive him
the defendant gathered his collectibles,
my mother's jewelry, an old kitchen set
the clanking of worthless goods in a bag
i hurried my brother to put his shoes on
and quietly dialed nine one one
non emergency
we slipped out the door
and heard him from the bathroom
with an electric shaver
talking about whose fault it was
he had no money
i saw orange pill bottles and
dietary supplements and
an alcoholics anonymous book,
a bible
i saw his green eyes flash as i left
he had no eyebrows
i pushed my brother down the path
where he felt resentment i felt pity
and we crawled into a flashing car
where the police had me scribble down
our information and my brother had to write it
for me because i couldn't
and they parked behind a tree behind a tractor
and took him out in hand cuffs
for us to see
now we argue diminished capacity
when we found out he robbed a bank
and i never saw him again
just the shavings in the sink
