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...