Girl Cuffed

by Cassandra Dallett

Cuffed red spray paint hands
extra large drunk girl
hiding behind
extra small bush
even my friends laughed
picked up from Park Street Station
shame faced and hanging-over.

Cuffed to the dumpster
In the back of Cala Foods
drunk again, I threw a ham in my flight jacket.

Cuffed to fifteen underage hands
A human chain snaking out and down
ass cold on concrete in the parking lot
head lit in the sparkling of Broadway nights
In the paddy wagon I watched as they
rifled through my girlfriend’s bag of stolen lingerie
and Seagram Seven
lucky girl
She’d been in the bathroom
when the fire marshall came backstage.

Cuffed downtown
LPs followed us from Macy’s
we split and ran in Merrill’s drugs
cop car doors stood open
out the back door
they threatened us with grand theft
called us malicious and posted
our cute bad-girl Polaroid’s.

Cuffed on a Market street island
I fought two LPs and a traffic cop
dropping my swollen bags of loot
they called it assault and theft
I was no longer a minor.

Cuffed in a paddy wagon
from North Station to 850
watching a junkie kick the doors
till actually miraculously
the door bent and
he slipped out wafer thin
onto Tenderloin streets
shining and dirty
to his next fix.

Cuffed face down
cheek on the yellow line
guns at my head
Cadillac Seville smoking behind me.

Cuffed in The Banneker Homes
perp walked past my ex’s rear window
bullet casings everywhere
all the neighbors said
“It was the big white girl”

Cuffed behind my 66 Impala
pukey juniper citrus smell of
gin n’ juice spilled down my Carhardt
walked heel to toe
counted fingers backwards
until a second car pulled up flashing
GI Joe with a Breathalyzer.

Cuffed at the bottom of the stairs
when the beer soaked cop
loosened his headlock
on my kicking body
I hit the stairs running
straight into the waiting squad car
police radios blaring “catch the girl in green”

Cuffed on a frigid night
in reverse avoiding
a roadblock on the beltway
stripped of license and car
cursing frozen clouds
rip-throwing the pile of tickets
all that cold walk home.

Cuffed in my living room
smart-ass cop
tryin’ to hustle me out with only
socks in snow
me still public enemy number one
over a noise warrant?