Like Night Catching Jackrabbits in Its Barbed Wire

For my birthday we drive up the bajada
to Pioneertown Lanes, where the singer Cat Power
has left her scoresheet on the wall.
We bowl under pink and green lights.
Back in civilian footwear we walk
sand to Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneer Palace,
deal Quiddler to the roadhouse G-l-o-r-i-a,
and then a Marine, Band-Aid on his nose,
stumbles, steals my beer. I snatch it back.