Poet and playwright reg e gaines performs at Poetry & Art on June 14 with fellow contributors to the San Diego Poetry Annual. Click for details.

Stolen Car
Black on black Beamer
Boosted from Bayonne
Flying north on Bergen Ave
Three cop cars in rear view mirror
Sirens screaming
Chan rips right on Claremont
Zooms past Ocean
Slams brakes
We bail
I sprint up Arlington
Hop fence
Duck behind 4 trash cans in
Herman Outlaw’s driveway
Tap dips down Claremont
Left on Randolph
Heads towards Teddy’s grocery store
Chan slides from driver’s side
Crosses street
Does slow pimp stroll
As cop cars screech to a halt
Five officers exit
Split in different directions
Chan does 180
Walks towards them
They run right by
Cops can’t catch Tap
Must move ASAP
Or go to jail
Heart thumps so loudly
Barely hear Valerie Davidson
Peck kitchen window
Thin index finger
Motions towards door
Latch unlocks
Slip inside
Sound of footsteps rise behind
Picture window view of
Cops chasing tails
Chan nears beamer
Footsteps louder
Crawl on fours
Crack curtain
Cop creeps
Gun drawn
Make way to window
Watch insane scene unfold
Stare at cop stare at Chan
As hand reaches for Beamers door
Unsure what’s first
Chan’s smirk
Valerie’s shriek
Kickback from .38
Shell shattering breastplate
Chan falls as if he has no legs
Following day
Enter English glazed in guilt
Valerie
Me
Only souls who know
Cop’s version is fiction
Sit
Rewind
Compose
Wipe eyes
Nose
Dump sheet on desk
Later
Leaving Spanish
Met by gold braided brass
Who stares
As if I’ve killed
One of theirs
Cuffed
Read rights
Watch cop tear sheet
Toss in trash
Lead to shiny black and white
Which conspicuously sits
In front of Snyder High
Duck head
Dumped down in seat
Cop car jets
To what’s known on these
Jersey City streets as #5. . .

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reg e gaines is a playwright, poet and director. He wrote and produced a new musical, The 88, with music by Calvin Gaines, for Art House productions in Jersey City. reg e gaines is a Tony Award-winning playwright, Grammy-nominated lyricist, language arts literacy workshop facilitator and published poet. He scored the 13-episode PBS documentary, Senior Year, directed Jerry Quickley’s Through The Looking Glass, and directed a five-week musical theater summer camp for the city of Camden, N.J. He has recently been commissioned to write and perform a play about dynamic activist and award-winning playwright Amiri Baraka, one of America’s most important poets.