Two cops, ununiformed, crept up
Creaking tenement steps at 2AM
And they knocked, nose-up weapons cocked
At the topmost door

The younger one was my father

I’d never seen my father move like that
Spinning silent with his gun into the hall
Lights went on in rooms I could not see
I heard shouts. I heard doors slam

I heard the scrape of a shoved bed

Somehow, nobody got hurt that night
Nobody was high enough to argue
Nobody was high enough
To reach for the weapon in their pillow, no
They just let me go

They just let me go