Wednesday, September 11, 2013

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.

                                  

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