bird authority in the dark

Halloween night,
and i was seventeen.
Jeremy and i were
loaded and driving through
town in his civic hatch
singing along
to The Doors.
there was a car
behind us
with its brights on,
glaring through the rear window.
i flipped the car the bird
and we laughed.
then the red and blue lights flashed.
i hid my knife under the seat
and Jeremy crotched the pot.
he pulled over
and the cop
made me get out of the car.
he yelled at me for
a few minutes
before asking why
i had flipped him off.
"i thought you were
some asshole," i said.
"i could have been some crazy guy,"
he replied.
"you could have been," i said. "but turns out
you were a cop."
he finally
apologized for flashing
his brights at us,
and i told him i was sorry
for flipping him off.
we shook hands
and he let us go.
no one got shot.
hell, he didn't even write us a ticket.
Jeremy packed a bowl,
and we smoked it down
as we left town
on the far east side towards his
house.
"you flipped off a cop," he laughed.
i took the knife from
under the seat
and put it back in my pocket.