GOOD OL' BOYS

Sprung from the maternity ward on or about

the same day, blood-brothers cursed with

good ol’ boys’ curiosities, just a natural-born

Frank and Jesse James gang of two, our first

heists being valve-stem caps off the tires of

idling cars parked out front of Bob Roberts’

Grocery only because they were there I guess

and something we could reach… our trikes

growing then into bikes with horses’ names,

later developing into Harleys engined by aces

of spades clothes-pinned right into the spokes

flacketty-rackettywhack!

 

Short and invisible to adults in the fall of ’58…

slipping under the radar through the gala open-house

crowd in the back of the Dover Motor Chevrolet

showroom and brazenly peeking up the

canvas skirt shrouding the about-to-be-unveiled

Car of the Future, us becoming the absolute

first human beings on the planet! to eyeball the

Oh-my-God, drop-dead super fins of the ’59…

Purple Heart veterans of the Merrick Square

Pea-shooter Campaign of the early ‘60s that

escalated into savage backyard guerilla warfare

where the weapon of choice was the apple-grenade

speared onto the sharp tip of a limbed sapling

and propelled with a quick fierce whip-snap!

 

And always looking to the likes of Bogart

and Cagney for what to say

and how to say it,

or how to smoke those

stolen ashtray butts…

wondering about

S-E-X…

and

just itching

to get older...

---