banished

your truck gets towed.
deep into the night,
a cowardly quiet truck
from dominion towing
did hook it up
and sped it away to some
foreign lot
in Lorton.
apparently you've violated a cardinal
rule.
no ladders are
allowed to be seen
by this gentile
neighborhood. how unsightly
to have aluminum rungs
bared and roped upon the rack
for all to see, the horror,
the fainting,
the case of vapors
that must have prevailed.
how their tender eyes must have
burned from
the visage of such a thing.
take this truck
away from here, the condo
board president screamed,
his bowing minions
cloaked in red,
chanting tow it, tow it, tow it.
and him
pointing his black gloved
finger towards the highway.
banish this unsightly
thing from our sight.
the audacity to have left
a ladder on top
of one's work vehicle.
the shame of it all. the shame.