His heart broke right then and there,
things have their own peculiar way of catching up,
and it brought him to a standstill outside
the building which had hung on for years
as the last record store in town.

He remembered her outfit from Barrymore Park,
and the way it would go on to loan him the means
to be driven to distraction for years afterwards.

Barrymore Park has always been a good place
for losing a shootout with the police,
but it seemed like it was happening a lot more now.

Sweat poured over his face,
the taste of sugar in the air left little bumps
on his tongue,
and his heart went on beating.

Waiting for January is getting harder by the hour,
and it would be nice to see someone driving an ambulance
who wasn’t spectacularly messed up on something they made,
in the basement of a farmhouse that’s probably parked neatly
between a couple of space-age towers from the 1970’s.

For a long time, he would watch them park
in front of a Chinese restaurant,
maybe a Japanese Cineplex or Tex Mex massage parlor,
eat past their fill, giggle like Kindergarten-age serial killers,
and wait for a call that might get them closer
to meeting the true love of their life.

He tried to be optimistic.
At least, they weren’t hurting people anymore.

The sidewalk burned through his shoes,
but there was distant, delirious rock and roll
somewhere nearby,
and it made him feel good enough to build
homes and lives for unexpected family and friends.

Waiting for 4 PM to arrive,
that moment when the day succumbed
to the sight of the finish line at the bottom of the hill,
would be easier when he got home.

One more stupid errand.

The only reason why the bullet
went straight through his mouth
was because he was yawning at the time.

He fell.
Nothing else really to say about it,
except for the way the sunlight suddenly looked
as though it could only peek timidly from behind
a very large, very dark door.

A man in black pants ran through the doors
of the pharmacy, and over his head.

He had two huge bags
of what looked like band-aids and prescription drugs,
dangling wild and fancy-free from his arms.

06/14/2013

Posted on 06/14/2013
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