Boys
- Boys
The fall of '93. Red leavespile on the groundand tremble beneath the schoolyard eaves.Once struck, you just stay down,
swallow the blood and hide the tears.The boy who picked the fightwill carry on this way for years.He packs a solid right
left bloodied by your broken lips,and lifts his arms to playthe victor, satisfy the script.But before he walks away,
back home to where his dad swills gin,curses game-show hosts,the government, and Mexicans,you see in him the ghost
of fear. Today he is a man.His dad will sure be proud.The rest, stunned silent when this all began,are cheering, wild and loud. [End Page 30]
CHAD ABUSHANAB's poems appear in, or are forthcoming from, Shenandoah, 32 Poems, the Hopkins Review, Measure, and others. He is a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at Texas Tech University. He serves as the poetry editor for Arcadia and its chapbook imprint, Arcadia Press.*
