flock

they came out in fleeting shadows
sweeping across his right side
then disappearing
like the film negative versions of ghosts
he'd just finished his cigarette
and finally motivated himself to
leave the car when they
emerged unexpectedly
he didn't even flinch
finally, he thought, as he lay there
bloody and bruised
savoring every last blow of
the chains and aluminum bats
and tire irons
finally, this is the intervention he'd hoped for
a barricade between him
and the two-storey house
no more than twenty feet away
that long trek he always dreaded