A Debt Repaid Years Later Poem by Charles Chaim Wax

I dragged myself to the train station
and when I arrived
I was surprised to see
five police cars blocking Sheepshead Bay Road,
and about twenty cops
standing in front of Dunkin’ Donuts
holding back a crowd.
I pressed forward
to see
but couldn’t wiggle my way up front
so I turned to a guy
on my right and asked, “What’s going on? ”
He was short and thin
and his body tilted to the left.
“You carrying? ” he asked.
“What? ”
“They’re rounding up
all known drug suspects in Brooklyn
biggest Dragnet
since the French Connection.” He paused,
then again asked, “You carrying? ”
“What? ”
“Dump it
only chance you got
there’s undercover narcs
planted every place
see that guy in the dry cleaning store
a narc
in the bagel place
two narcs
dump it
cause if you ain’t carrying
they can’t do nothing
it’s on the floor
let ‘em prove it’s your stash.”
“Who’s in Dunkin’ Donuts? The methadone junkies? ”
“They’re finished
you still got a chance
dump it
then walk away and whistle a merry tune.”
“I only have Rolaids, ” I said.
“Never heard of it
some kinda new coke from Costa Rica?
Be careful
that cop’s lookin’ straight at you
dump it, my friend
flee
but don’t walk fast
a sure give away.”
This guy’s a nut
I said myself, then whispered,
“I put Costa Rican LSD
in the Rolaid tablets
cooked up a batch last night
dropped a dropp on each pink pill
then wrapped ‘em up again
so they’ll never catch me.”
“5140, ” he suddenly yelled.
To make a long story short
this lunatic
tried to arrest me
but the guy
in charge of the operation
happened to be
a former student
who said when he saw me,
“Bernstein, my hero.”
Well, I had helped
the youngster out
by giving him an A+
on a composition
filled with errors
when he had
no confidence himself
and said my benevolent
gesture
turned his life around
from dropp out
to first grade
Detective
protecting all
good citizens
from harm.