My wife and I walk through
the neighborhood every morning,
pretending we’re the Green Police,
marking which houses leave the outside
lights on twenty-four hours a day,
complaining about the ceiling fan
next door that spins
on the back patio even in winter.
I suppose we are a cliché:
a retired couple roaming
the streets surrounding our house,
playing good cop, bad cop—
I’d like to say I was the tough one,
but she’s the one with swagger;
look at that car
in the driveway, she says
in her outside voice,
nobody in it, but the engine
running, polluting the air.
Next time, she’ll probably put a boot
on the car, switch off the porch lights,
while I stand by, the good cop,
waiting to arrest whoever left
that damn fan to spin.
MICHAEL MINASSIAN lives with his wife in Southern New England. He is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual, an online poetry journal. His poetry collections Time is Not a River, Morning Calm, and A Matter of Timing as well as a chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, are all available on Amazon. For more information: https://michaelminassian.com
