We were secret agents

Napoleon Solo and James Bond

on bikes

cousin Bob and I hunkered down

the New York and Pittsburgh joint forces

we scribbled in notebooks

diagrams of ballpoint pens with retractable poison needles

cameras tied to helium balloons for surveillance

we roamed on foot the neighborhood

in Zelienople, Pennsylvania

late evening shadows

brimming with threat

cutting through yards

avoiding contact

when an assassin’s car

approached we’d dive

with abandon behind hedges

when lights came on in houses

we’d race away with renewed

urgency

do not be alarmed ma’am

protecting the free world

we hadn’t planned on

the cops