Victimless crime.
Take what is yours, take what is mine.

Undue violence, the greed, hypocrisy;
what is left behind when
we are only accountable
to ourselves.

Each of us a shadow,
most of us forgettable,
all of us trying
to get by.

Beyond the barking dogs, before
pungent night air strangles any humanity
from vagrants who piss in corners
we never visit.

On the darker side of 3 a.m.

A wrong answer will get you knifed,
the wrong needle will leave you dead.

No one will care.
Fewer will know.

Remind me who I am
before I forget to see.

Just write
my name
in graffiti.

Claim my sins
and transgressions.

I will own up to my responsibilities,

like a prayer
like a poem
like a person.

© 2018 j.g. lewis