Protect Yourself at All Times
by Michelle Brooks

1. I didn’t change the locks
2. and the video camera records
3. without tape. If there was a fire,
4. I wouldn’t know what to save.
5. I took the batteries out of the smoke
6. detector. The sounds on the street
7. have ceased to mean anything other
8. than that I am alive enough to know
9. danger, headed toward me like
10. overnight guests that have let me
11. know they are on their way.