Recognizance

It's still dark when the alarm awakens me,
I had slept with the window open
and the air is cold in my room,
there's not enough time to heat the house
so I shower quickly, dress,
get the paperwork I need from the coffee table
strewn where I left it the night before
next to three empty beer bottles.
I walk outside, down my block,
alongside a freeway that stretches
beneath me.
People are delivering newspapers
around me, milk,
fresh produce to supermarkets,
gasoline, cars collect outside
donut shops, coffee houses
I arrive at my destination,
a man looks at me first through
a video camera, buzzing me through
a metal door, then addresses me
over a metal grated opening in
bulletproof glass.
I give him papers; I have to pay for storage,
and pay for the tow truck, and then pay money
to the city. He types things
on a computer and tells me to wait out front.
Long night? he asks. I don't answer,
I walk out front and wait under the
last of the night sky for a bearded man
to bring me back my car.