Wednesday, August 29, 2012

poemS (kinda) of the day 08.29.12

i know i haven't posted much this month....sorry....been a long cruel summer.
anyway i have a poem up at Misfits' Miscellany which it would be cool if you checked out.

....and here's one for today.

thanks
jg


chuck

there was a group of us
in this daycare during the summer
from sun up until the evening

it was breaking our parents to keep us in there

a vicious cycle of work and bills and daycare
keeping everyone poor

but it was daycare or the mercy of the streets

the woman who ran it
sent us to an indoor pool every afternoon

there was nothing to do there
but belly flops off of the diving board
or piss in the garbage cans in the men’s room

wait for the summer to end

there was one kid there, chuck,
who never seemed to be with a parent

at first he swam laps alone
but then he started joining us daycare kids
playing marco polo or keep away

on breaks from swimming chuck would take us
out onto the back lawn

he had bags of sour cream and onion potato chips
and two-liter bottles of soda

he’d pass the chips and soda around to all of us kids
while we plotted more water games
more belly flops off of the diving boards

sometimes he’d drag these huge foam mats out
and break dance on the concrete

us daycare kids liked chuck

we’d talk about him all morning
and on the ride to the pool
we’d talk about chuck while we pissed into garbage cans

we couldn’t wait to sit outside eating the chips
and drinking the soda
while the other daycare kids looked on in anger

chuck was cool for a while
but then he began to change

he started withholding chips and soda from some us

we’d sit there like fools while chuck ate alone
or he’d bring other kids along
and they’d start bullying us into giving them money
even though none of us had dime

chuck and his pals would single us out in the pool
they’d splash us roughly
or toss us around the stale, warm chlorinated water

a group of us got busted for pissing in the garbage cans

we knew that it was chuck who’d ratted us out

we had to spend a month cleaning garbage cans
and picking up trash outside in the summer heat

chuck would toss his potato chips bags on the lawn
and call us over to pick them up

he cornered each one of us while we worked
told us we owed him for all of his hospitality

he made up some outrageous figures

us kids at the daycare started to hate chuck
we never talked about him in the mornings
or on the way to the pool

we tried to figure out a way to get him back
but we had nothing

the last time i saw chuck i was chasing some kid
around the pool

the kid went outside and over to chuck for protection
but i decided the hell with it and stormed after him

only i ran through a closed glass window
and it shattered everywhere

as i laid there dazed and covered and glass and blood
as adults came running from every direction
screaming bloody murder, calling for an ambulance

i made eye contact with chuck

he just shook his head at me as if disappointed
like i hadn’t quite repaid my debt

then he lifted a big bottle of soda to his mouth
and drank.

                                    


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