Jake's Flea Market

manny carpenter tosses us

we
who were captured
into a legal system by compressor

crowded
into the tank
like saturday night drunks

measured
in pounds per square inch

we weigh
what air weighs

we were sentenced
to incarceration
in basketball

transported
by hose injected
with a needle through a valve
in admission

and here we are

we are legion

it’s our number
that makes the room round
so round the ceiling
is the wall and the wall 
is the floor and the floor
is the ceiling and the ceiling is

it’s our number
that hardens the leather
outer and the inner
rubber on the ceiling
on the wall on the floor 
of basketball

we go lunatic

and peter steen catches us