1.
His mother whipped his legs
with a hickory switch
for twitching in his sleep.
2.
Remove this g– d– catheter or I’ll pull it out myself—
The shift nurses rock-paper-scissors.
The loser goes.
3.
shot put
discus
offensive line
so much practice pushing things away
4.
My fingertips leave prints in the nicotine
that varnishes his walls, linking me
unwittingly to the scene of this crime.
5.
metastatic oat cell carcinoma
6.
three good shots
with his pistol and still
the snake slithers under
the concrete slab
7.
a mealy mass of rotted lung
the bruised flesh of an apple
8.
Prideful is not the same as proud
of something, or someone.
9.
barrel after barrel, the susurration
of seed sifting through his fingers:
barley, feed corn, winter ryegrass
dry as loose tobacco
10.
Big ol’ good one he called me.
I didn’t eat for seven months
the year I turned 16.
11.
Have you checked your tires
Have you checked the oil
12.
rigging a hot wire
to zap the squirrels
filching birdseed
from the feeder
13.
Can’t you take a funny little joke