poem of the day 09.11.13

black and white and read all over

i didn’t have an alarm

so my old man used to haul me out of bed

at four-thirty in the morning

there they’d be waiting for me

a stack of newspapers

when i couldn’t even see straight

i always remembered it being cold

when i had to deliver those things

sitting in the car with my old man

freezing my ass off

or leaning over him while he sprayed wd-40

to try and get the car to work

my old man always came with me

i was twelve and probably too young

to be delivering morning papers

so he’d sit inside the car listening to talk radio

keeping the heat running for me

so i could hop inside and get out of the cold

this kindness tempered my anger

at waking up before the sun rose

i didn’t like delivering the papers

navigating the neighborhood when it was still dark

and every house was pitch black

fighting off the dogs that had been left out all night

the raccoons that were still attacking last night’s garbage

often i would start to doze at school

while the other kids sat in class bright-eyed and well-rested

the money from the job wasn’t even that good

people would moan and complain at me

if their paper wasn’t outside the door by six

but they never seemed to be home

when i came to collect

except for a house full of teenage girls

who used to look at me like i was a piece of shit

when i came for my money

those girls were always around

to try and make me feel worse about my setup

the only joy that i got from the paper route job

was coming home and watching espn

while my old man woke my mother

and the two of them got ready for work

they had this exercise show on the channel, body shaping

that had these two chicks exercising

and lifting weights  in bikinis

i used to watch that show

and tug on my pecker like i was working against the clock

waiting for something

anything to happen

every single morning

until one day….success

and that show tempered the anger

of getting up before the sun

way more than my old man

keeping that car running with the heat

or catching one of those teenage girls

walking around the house in her underwear

scratching her narrow ass

while i stood on the porch

stock still

waiting for the big payoff.