I scrubbed an old shack’s
bathroom ceiling so
cowboys like you
wouldn’t get their hats
cobwebbed after feeding
cattle. I never could
eat without remembering
piles of dead roaches in the
bathtub, live rats
behind the toilet even
though you promised
a mountain horse-trail
picnic before sunset.
But you took your
steer-dented pickup
to your cousin’s
down the dusk-dimmed
road while I watched
furry legs bubble up
sink drains and cursed
unbaled hay fields and
thick steak dinners.
“Initiation” was printed in Harvest Time, No. 5 of Inwood Indiana. Pick up the paperback from Prolific Press; the stories and poems published online are free to read here.
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