fixes and breaks
a free verse poem
first construction job June through August 1989 Hensley Contracting owned by an old man Dad knew from church renovating duplexes, paid cash lawless Indy ghetto strewn from 30th and College drove a Chevy van, 1983 wall-to-wall green shag mall cop blue metallic paint with 4 tones of racing stripes a CB but no radio except the Hitachi jam box for my metal mixtapes 8” speakers, 8 D-cell batteries crew lead’s name was George who acted responsible but it was merely an act stealing from the old man materials, fixtures, whatever blamed it on the local blacks and when they learned about it George lost his tools at knifepoint we were the drywall men Gordon and me his afro was Maggot Brained his jeans faded with 5 digits ink-stamped at the big pen where he did a 12 piece for shooting his real brother over a much older woman sheltered girlfriend stopped by sharing lunch and sweet nothings Gordon watched from the shade nibbling a cheese sandwich locked on her with widened pupils later asked with his back turned if i’d ever fucked her asshole adding i’d never want pussy again Leif was George’s nephew hopelessly drunk and lazy snuck onto the site some nights we’d wake him in the morning gave me dirtweed pinners for rides to the Desi LQ (better porn) then we’d hit the sour mash with indifference all the way back Leif scored 4-way acid talked me into the pool hall split a martian 10 strip earlier drained a pint of clear pulled into the parking lot ran over a concrete block slid to the sticky carpet with a smile from the first break of the balls some days were summer gold passing spliffs as we hung sheetrock frying bologna in abandoned cars on the dash with the windows up and not watching the Baja Boys deal crack out in the open sneer at police cruisers, flinchless festive clips emptied into the sky we 4 smoked on the porch, day’s end 2 young boys crept by on bicycles gape-mouthed, zombie-eyed, single file the first one slowing to a stop falling sideways like a cut tree the other boy running him over before climbing off to help remount together swerving off in silence Gordon finally violated parole George quit in unrelated anger Leif and i showed up twice didn’t know what to do burned our last joint then left for good maybe he stayed to sleep or think got in my van and rewound the cassette King Diamond, i’m pretty sure
Thanks for reading.
Also, I was a labourer once, believe it or not. I’m not sure if you use the same term over there. But essentially the bricklayers dogsbody. Mucking up (mixing up the cement and carrying it in buckets) and all the general stuff that requires no skill beyond the physical jousting and learning how to carry things on your head up a ladder. I was lazy though and always for friends who tolerated that but we had our moments of gunning it. Almost died a couple of times, which is standard I think. Anyway, I’m not in that game anymore.
Soaked up into a memory. Great work!!