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Hiroshima

Thursday it was diving 
for the man
that drowned by the pavilion
so we could earn fifty
cents to see
Lash LaRue and the stage 
show in Mount Holly
but it was
somebody else that found
the body a little
colored boy
that just took the money
and ran off to
wherever the hell he came
from


Friday it was eating
a box of Almond
Joys and what
was left what we couldn't
force down we
buried
in the dust under the
cabin next
door where we kept
our other things where we
kept watch


Saturday it was being out
of school
under the log bridge
that crossed over to the woods
behind
the bootlegger's house
promising we
would do our homework but
inside
the Weekly Reader
we had the fuck book from
daddy's closet
and jacked off our
dicks pale
as popsicle sticks watching
Olive Oyl do
herself with her fingers while
she stares at the cum drops
squirting 
from Popeye's cock
which stuck out past his fist
like a curved fishing
pole


Sunday it was
watching by the kerosene
lamp while
the man who said his name was Dorsey Spangle
danced with
mama
who told daddy after 
he got
home this man came
by without a job begging
for food
and he could play
the guitar like
all get out so she had to
give him something
to eat
didn't she poor man ask
the children


Monday it was going
to school
again out on the playground
squinting at the sun
with our backs
against the bicycle racks
the day
it was in the paper how they
blew up the whole
city so
bright it burned people's shadows
into the sidewalks
and when they tried to get
cool in
the river it was
full of dead
bodies and some of them
went blind like
when you look up at the sun 
the teacher said
and the sky will get
full of 
colored spots like mayflies
dancing


Tuesday it was daddy getting
home from off
the road
and us waking up to see him
crouched down
beside the window with the .22
resting on
the ledge while
he stared through the scope
at the carp playing in
the garbage
that floated in the shallows
keeping watch
till one
of them came up near
the surface in a dark blur like
a bird flying
underneath
and he could do it with
one shot make the thing jump clear
up out
of the water squirting fish
blood like pearls
of cum

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