A Childhood dream

"What are you gonna be when you grow up?"

asked my parents, my friends,

"I'm going to be part of a police lineup."

I replied, standing upright and fixing my look into the void
chin pointing like a torpedo.

Like many kids I loved cops and robbers, but what fascinated me

was the idea of standing in a line

and in that line

a criminal, real, in flesh and blood

held his blank gaze towards a two-way mirror
sharing his vibes amongst us motley lot.

There is something seductive about a gangster face

Out on a limb

exasperated

lips tied shut

and ready to devour

the first

victim

in

sight

I went to school where studies in literature always led me back to the scene of the crime

And then I started volunteering for police lineup work.

At first it gave me the chills

but after some convictions the feeling morphed into a state of excitement.

I was like being an emergency doctor:

no long trails with painstaking juries 

Here, I stood in the line and painted the meanest face I could as I looked into the mirror

often feeling solidarity -for behind that reflective shadow we could make out a moving,

 accuser, a man, a woman pacing back and forth and ready to raise his or her finger and say "that one!"

More and more rarely would I go home to visit my dear parents

Oddly I grew afraid they would look at me; judge me in a funny way.

One day when my little brother was standing on his toy zebra

I had a clear vision of the perfect police lineup

Where everyone was a criminal hence everyone was a suspect

So the aim was to pick out the most criminal of the criminals

and if you did

you

won.

My heart started beating because when I get a good idea I know I have to pounce on it

Like Pinocchio going after the grasshopper

I sprung into action

In America with over 3 million prisoners we need more lineups

We need to build them like airport strips allowing for 

easy suspect mobility and easy identification

Some say lineups are a pain in the ass because there are lots of crackpots out there

Making it all the harder for a hapless victim who, after all, while under duress, cannot probably remember if the assailant was wearing a back or a brown shoe.

Thank God we have institutions like MIT and a criminal justice system that

can fork over a little R&D to work out this equation

But seriously, why put out so much effort when the NRA has its own solution to rising crime?