Simpler Times

Candy store comics after school. Rom has silver blasters for hands and everyone is in a panic. But it's forty cents and I only have a quarter, so I buy a bag of chips and head home 

I bounce a Spalding the entire way. When I get home William is cross-legged on the floor, box of Yodels in his lap, Woody Woodpecker on TV

Mom is on the phone. I ask when we're eating but she doesn't hear. I snatch a Yodel and kick William in the butt. He doesn't respond; he's in there with Woody

The doorbell rings and Rex starts barking. Mom hangs up, peers out the window, curses. She yells for me to put Rex in the bathroom. I drag him in by the collar and return to the livingroom 

The two men in the doorway wear dark suits. They're clean cut and reserved. "I haven't seen him in a year," she says. They nod patiently, glancing at the barking bathroom 

One hands Mom his card and they leave. She rushes to the phone. I ask again when we're eating but she doesn't hear. I free Rex and grab another Yodel 

It's 4PM. The Little Rascals is about to start

Transactions

Wrap them in plastic wrap them in blankets I can't think 

with that stench was that your cousin I saw in the gutter?

It's getting dark the truck won't be there much longer

grab me a water a loaf of bread I'll trade you these 

sandals (no, that's not blood) just get me a water 

the truck's gonna leave I think I hear another drone

I was a performer long ago I dove from the highboard

they loved me they cheered I even made a few bucks

there was a Romanian girl she had kind brown eyes 

sad eyes I think her father beat her we fell in love and 

we would meet after the show and walk around town 

Hurry up kid just run to the truck before the bombs start 

again I don't want to get blown up these dogs will tear out 

my eyes wrapped in plastic wrapped in blankets they won't 

even give me a proper burial get me a water a loaf of bread 

I'll trade you these sandals come on don't you see I'm dying? 

Her father told her to marry me and he'd pay for the wedding 

he just wanted to get rid of her see she had one foot that was 

normal and one that was very small otherwise she was perfect 

kind funny rich brown eyes long black hair but she couldn't 

work and her father the bastard he considered her useless

I wonder how things would be if I'd stayed gotten married 

worked with her bastard father while she cared for the kids 

(a real family, you know?) but I just couldn't get past that tiny 

foot and now here I am in a bombed out city fighting off dogs 

with a drone taking aim every time I scratch my goddamn ass