talos
they used to shout insults
at us catholic school kids
as we walked home from school
they called us faggots or dykes or pussies
from the safety of their public school bus
none of us kids could argue the point with them
because we were the ones
dressed in oxford shirts and polyester pants and plaid
skirts
it seemed like there was
a fleet of those kids on the bus
denim-clad and long-haired
giving us the finger as they drove by
they were your run-of-the-mill burnouts
but we called them talos
i had no clue where the name came from
only that i was getting tired of the daily abuse
of being called a homo
and dodging crushed coke cans coming at me
when i was just trying to get home from school
something had to be done
the next time that school bus went by
and those talos started in with their invective
and finger gestures
i stopped walking and stated shouting back
anything that i could think of
faggot
assholes
cocksuckers
douche bags
motherfuckers
it was vulgar poetry to me
getting to shout those words
while i hopped up and down in my place
i gave them the finger
i gave them the bread basket
with both hands in front of my crotch
like i was packing a python
moving back and forth in a thrusting motion
as the public school bus drove on into the distance
and the kids on it went rabid with violence
and the stiffs coming home from work
started rubbernecking, watching the good catholic boy
angrily hump at air
i thought that i was such a big man
giving those talo pricks a dose of their own medicine
i thought that my actions would be
the grand finish to our daily dialog
that we’d be on an even level now
but then a block down the road
there they came on foot
the talos in one long stream of hulking bodies
the male ones and their female ones
it was like an army of long-haired bastards
smoking cigarettes
shouting and pointing at me from the distance
snarling traffic and defiling trees
for weapons and the sheer fun of it
and they were all coming for me.
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