Sometimes
I get myself in trouble
Saying
what might be considered
the wrong thing…
not because I want to be an irritation
but because someone asked a question
and I gave them an answer
they didn’t want to hear…
a woman
in her early twenties…
as big as my mother’s old ‘52 Pontiac…
dressed from head to toe
in basic black…
looking like Johnny Cash’s
gothic offspring…
sits on a bench
awaiting a bus
to nowhere…
I am passing…
on my way to the bookstore…
Charles Bukowski
and iced coffee
are on my mind…
I glance
unemotionally
at the vision on the bench…
it is obvious
she hasn’t missed a meal
since birth…
pizza, French fries,
and hamburgers
lounge beneath her clothing…
she sports a tattoo on her wrist
of a bleeding rose and barbwire…
her hip hugging pants are tight
and her doughy white belly
protrudes over the top…
like the bulges
in a bag of cooked oatmeal…
what breasts
this oddity might have
are stuffed into a bra two sizes two small…
the shoes
look like those worn by Karloff
as the Frankenstein Monster…
the blue and orange hair
hangs at a jagged angle
across her right eye
touching
the spherical silver piercing
in her top lip…
lips smeared thickly
in a color
like that of a ‘bruise’…
and her black eye makeup
was applied with a trowel…
I remember my youth
and the confrontations I had
with my mother over my appearance…
I’m sympathetic
to young people
trying to make a statement
about who they are…
this girl has pushed this concept
right over the edge…
to the point
of being laughable…
I remain staring
at her visage…
without emotion
or any open show
of distaste…
she has had people
stare at her before…
it would be hard to believe
that she hadn’t…
yet even though
she applies this costume
to attract attention…
in typical fashion…
she plays the offended party
if you’re caught looking
in her direction…
which is, of course,
what happens…
I’m calmly staring
at this fright show
when she looks up…
we make eye contact…
big mistake…
quickly
she snaps,
‘what the-hell are YOU lookin’ at?!’…
I think about this
for a second
and reply matter-of-factly,
‘that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,
but without much success.’…
I immediately received
the ‘digital expression’
of her disdain…
middle finger erect…
accompanied by
the customary
smart-ass smirk…
yep,
I get myself in trouble…
someone asks a question…
I give them an answer
and I get the finger…
life is good…
R. C. Arquette
4/10/07
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