coward

[kenneth]

I was a clueless high school senior

pressing my Prufrock spine

against a barbeque-scented chair

and staring at every pair of tight jeans

or a short skirt wiggling past me

through nicotine clouds in a nocturnal lounge.

My Casanova buddies were doing the Electric Slide

with tipsy ghetto queens, luring them

into slow drags and promising

an exciting one-way Voyage to Atlantis.

I was neither a lover nor a fighter

but merely a watcher, which can sometimes

be the worst among those categories.

Old people used to tell me

that crazy things occur after midnight,

but we were already bewitched

since 10 p.m. Three hours later

made hardly any difference.

I was worrying about how my mom

was going to swoop down on me

with a leather-belt vengeance

for ignoring my curfew again.

I stepped outside to the pay phone,

rehearsing believable excuses,

when I heard intoxicated tones

stirring a few feet away from me.

I turned around just in time

to watch a torn woman yelling

at her belching boyfriend

who was spitting up slurred insults.

My seared conscience whispered in my ear,

"This is none of my business,"

as I crept towards the front door

like an intimidated Levite

passing on the other side

of a wounded traveler.

He suddenly barked, "Shut up,"

reduced her to the status

of a female mongrel

and laid the thunderclap

of his trembling hand

against her tear-stained cheek.

A part of me wanted to look

both ways like Moses and bury

this wannabe Ike Turner

in the Southeast Texas sand

while another part of me knew

that I could not shake off

the impact of bullets torpedoing

from a possibly concealed 9mm.

Looking back on this adolescent episode,

I wonder to this day who was the bigger coward:

either the boyfriend drunk with grapes of wrath

or me for tiptoeing back into festive shadows

silhouetting wall-to-wall grins?

Copyright 2007. Streetlight Publications.

[WANDERER]

Did you write this?

[kenneth]

Yes. It's based on a difficult episode that I faced at a party when I was a teenager. It overall deals with the issues of respecting women (i.e. lust, domestic violence) and whether or not we will do the right thing to help someone in trouble even if it means risking our own lives or well-being.

[MorningStar]

Cool, Kenneth. I think we all have experiences we wish we would've done differently.

[WANDERER]

It makes me think of Tracey Chapman: she writes some interesting lyrics about such problems.

[pushka]

I like your style Kenneth..have you been inspired by any particular writers/poets?

[Elphaba]

Yes. It's based on a difficult episode that I faced at a party when I was a teenager. It overall deals with the issues of respecting women (i.e. lust, domestic violence) and whether or not we will do the right thing to help someone in trouble even if it means risking our own lives or well-being.

Kenneth,

That was powerful and evocative.

I hope you are still writing, and if you're not, start!

Elphaba