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heroes from law school

by Gabriel Ricard

One of these days you might actually
convince me to help you
steal a car. We could get some of that money
we’ve always talked about borrowing indefinitely.

Your husband is rich, after all. Your kids
are mean, terminally overweight and bound
to knock up a cousin one of these days.

I’m aware of those midnight barbeques
in your backyard. Anyone can see the bonfire
and hear the motorcycles digging their
way to the center of the earth from the bridge
that starts on Howler St. and doesn’t ever really end.

It has not left my collection of recurring dreams
that your multiple personality disorder
only kicks in when the three a.m. demolition derby
has taken over the town and is trying to tell you
what to do. I am not stupid. I know enough
to decide that I’m better off paying for cheap cigarettes
because life is short, and they make me look cool.

I am not stupid. I work out the stuff about God,
believe in love to a point and try to be honest
in all my writing. Even though I suspect a lot of people
are laughing at me.

Not you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh
without some kind of chemical imbalance
or deathbed comedian to help you out.

It’s also true that I’ve never seen
you read a book. In twenty years,
it hasn’t once come up or seen you go down
a lonesome park where no one dies young.

One of those stretches of mean trees
and vindictive street performers
where everything looks like the dream
just started a few seconds ago.

It could go either way, yeah?

You’re into that kind of thing,
and I know you know that we both know
how many tin cans you’ve shot to pieces.

We could pull it off. We could be millionaires
through Christmas and only pass away
because we couldn’t stop using screwdrivers
and crooked baseball bats to decide the argument
of where we should run to next.

I could be a dentist in Singapore.
You could learn how to turn city buses
into unforgiving feathers.

04/13/2010

Posted on 04/13/2010
Copyright © 2024 Gabriel Ricard

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by George Hoerner on 04/14/10 at 12:42 PM

Quite an awesome write my friend. And what else to lawyers do anyway.

Posted by V. Blake on 04/14/10 at 05:04 PM

Sail tonight for Singapore, do ya? I see that you have not become any less amazing in my absence. Another excellent write, sir.

Posted by Morgan D Hafele on 04/20/10 at 06:43 AM

the second stanza actually made me laugh out loud.

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