Noon in the line outside


The pretty woman with a prisoner number, CDCP ****, written in ballpoint on the palm of her hand. "You have to give them the number." "You can't bring anything inside." "I'll hold your place in the line while you go back to the car." Her clear plastic pocketbook full of quarters for the vending machines inside. "It has to be clear plastic." "You're allowed $30 in quarters." I find his number, with her pen I write it on the palm of my hand.

-- Jean Valentine
Door in the Mountain: New & Collected Poems