TESTICULAR FORTITUDE
There are two kids
bouncing off the walls
and the combination
of those little shits
and their grandmother's meek
church house scolding
make it nearly impossible
to focus on my book
If I weren't so polite
I would grab them
and shake them
and scream foul things
into their faces
but I am
and I keep cool
even though I've been waiting
a fucking hour already
Luckily a woman comes out
and calls the boy in,
Tyler's his name
and his sister suddenly sits silent
in his absence
I'm halfway through, "Friendly Advice To A Lot Of Young Men"
when Tyler comes running back out
giggling
and defiantly proud
-"I ran out," he said.
-"How come? You need to talk with the nice lady,"
whispered his grandmother.
-"She can go to hell!
She was asking personal stuff
and I'm not gonna tell her nothin'!"
This makes me smile
better than a bar fight or a car crash.
I stick the piece of foil
from an old cigarette pack
that I use for a bookmark
back between the pages
and stop reading to watch
and out comes a man
-"Zachari? Zachari?"
-"Shit…"
I grab my book and head in
to give this new stranger the same kind of hard-on
that I get
when people I hardly know
confide in me
with their own personal hell
Maybe even make his life
seem that much more perfect
An introductory greeting
A handshake
A phony show of respect
and I take a seat
He eyes up my book
and asks
-"What's that you're reading?"
-"Oh, uh...The Roominghouse Madrigals"
He takes it in his big soft hands
and flips through the pages
-"Poetry?"
-"Yup."
-"Very nice.
It's a good way
to keep the mind healthy."
I manage an ambivalent smirk
knowing that he isn't familiar with the author
and silently wish that I had balls
as big as Tyler's
I decide right then and there
that this will be my first
and last visit.
Zachari James Popour resides in Michigan. He is just like you, both wonderful and horrible in varying degrees of comprehension.
