Distress signals

Shots came night walking
Setting their distress signals
Wandering streets for sound
Of eggs and washers ringing
Soundings off
Heard unknown
Two drifters with top hats and red scarves
Drinking by the totem pole counting the notches
Drifting the side street for eggs and washers
Picking up their beer and coke
Drinking at the lithia fountain
Swilling and snorting and thinking rhino
Buffalloed their toes, tripping again
Flat again two drifters flat again, float
Counting notches to totem their heads
Shots came night walking
Slipping alleys through causeways
When no one was looking
Drinking at the lithia fountain
They disappeared into a breath of relief
Morning broke relief, but held its breath
Scampering into sounds of the living
That wayward morning cry of day
Opening drifts through the unknown
When no one was looking.

Denis Streeter 3/8/11