poem of the day 04.16.15

toys

brian collected toys

batman and teenage mutant ninja turtles

that he kept in the packages

they excited him

filled a void that women

and lifting weights couldn’t fill

at least once a week

he’d park the delivery truck

and run into the toy store to grab

the latest star wars or sport figurine

brian’s hobby often made us late for deliveries

once we were two hours late

for a shipment of doors and windows

to this condo development

because brian wanted a spider-man doll

and we had to hit three stores before he could find it

the guys on the construction job wanted to kill us

the foreman got in brian’s face

and threatened to quit doing business with his old man

i had three big mothers on my ass

as i carried hundred pound doors to each new home

without trying to fall over

but when we got back in the truck

all brian could talk about was spider-man

his old man never said word

i was sure these foreman had to be calling to complain

the old man just sat in his office

listening to talk radio

getting his two slices of pepperoni per day

as brian sat in the warehouse fingering his new find

some of the guys said he was a special case

a suicide gone wrong

and the old man had to handle him with kid gloves

that didn’t help me

when construction guys were kicking at my ass

over a hobbit doll

i tried getting off the deliveries with brian

go out on calls with some of the guys from assembly

but i couldn’t put shit together

all i was good for was grunt work

and not even so good at that

i dropped my share of things

and couldn’t back-up the truck to save my life

so brian and i were stuck together

driving throughout greater buffalo

with talk radio and dunkin coffee breath

making foreman fume and wait

while he hunted down the next great find

bearded thor or darth vader with a helmet that came off

these fabulous toys that brian did nothing with

except put in his bedroom, he said

waiting for their value to increase

or for his old man to retire and give him the company

where the sky would be the limit

and it would be like christmas morning every day.