POEM FOR CHILDHOOD
For Dennis
Never a boot in the ass from these shoes
Nor a stomp on an instep to wield a crippling ballyhoo
No kicks to the groins or knuckles to the jaw
Just a slowly moving mind recording what it saw
He was a youngster like me
In the days before we had to worry
About loading real bullets into real guns
And we never had any carnage to bury
Skinny with a long bony face
His mind’s speed about he same as mine
We shared our youth and school uniforms
Where we met and fooled killin’ nothing but time
The last I remember of our days of play
We went home after school one afternoon
He asked his ma where the dog had gone
Without no warning she took a gun to it – kabloom!
Denny started bawlin’ and didn’t want to play
Any kinds of games with me after that
Blamed me, and I felt a strange sadness
I walked home quickly with my eyes behind my hat
-- Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
(Actually, his mother got rid of the dog
while the kids were at school, but she didn't kill it.)
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