Through Criminal Eyes Poem by John Calvin Cochrane

Through Criminal Eyes

Large red engines
roaring past, blazing
in an array of light
flashing.
A blast of sirens
past a stop sign.

There's a one way
exit, someone screams
and I am backwards
again, thinking, and losing
my ground.
My freedom?

Dark alleys offer cover.
Where may I hide
the evidence for now?
Enough time as I gasp
for breath.

To again continue
a rapidly paced
race
through black
streets.
I seek cover
in trees, and scrubs
along my path
to a getaway.

I trapse a path
of broken glass, and
refuse- through
holes, and over
barbed fence.
Scaling high
city walls.

Surrounding this
guarded fortress
is a protected shrine
encasing my guilt,
and
enforcing my verdict.
One to which
I am surely charged.

I seek refuge
in an abandoned
warehouse.
The stench of putrid
waste is horrid
but cardboard
will suffice a bed.

A home to be
for now,
where rats are
not too loud, as
to keep me
awake tonight.

John Cochrane