Thursday, April 16, 2015

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.


                                                          

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