When I was a boy
in star spangled
summer of seventy six,
I had no notion
that someday
I would be offered up
to strange industrial gods,
and burned at the altar of
systematic sacrifice.
When I was a boy
In star spangled
Summer of seventy six
We watched through
a cracked windshield
as rattled parents
worked feverishly
on Billy ‘s nose,
a short-hopped liner
caught sparks
in the stony outfield
breaking him
just at the bridge.
(Years later
he impresses
weird gatherings
by passing a straw
cleanly through the hole
left in his septum)
He bled a good part
of his would-be skills
into the bed
of that hatchback.
When I was a boy
In star spangled
Summer of seventy six
beneath that impossible
blue sky, running,
whistling the wind through
a bulletproof smile,
teeth like diamonds.
How could I know
Impermanence?
How could I know
that I would dip myself
at the end
of hemp rope
into the chimneys of
explosive furnaces,
brushes strapped to knee
and elbow,
set to sweep
And lodged there,
I would meet
Slow burning
dull
complacency?
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Submission Name: 76
