THE LAW

John Grey

He’s a cop, she says.

Her husband,

the man she lives with,

who shares her bed,

who’s the father of the child

she’s expecting in the spring.

He’s involved in everything

from fraud to robbery,

rape to murder.

He’s been trained in 

counter-terrorism and surveillance

and he can sniff out drugs 

almost as efficiently 

as the German shepherd 

that’s been assigned to work with him.

He brings his work home, she says.

Who else but her is hugged and kissed

because they just might be

the only honest, good-hearted person

left in the city.

He sees criminals everywhere

but in her eyes.

And they can’t go anywhere

without him bringing his revolver along.

When they huddle close,

it feels like a tumor in his chest.

But someone has to deal with

the vicious, the vile, 

the pathetic and the petty politics

and still find a way 

to come home to her each night. 

Only she knows who that someone is.

Image Harry Rajchgot (2016)