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STUART DISCHELL The Squash Man All these years living in the city, he still was not used to Walking on concrete. In his province he went barefoot With his sisters and chased the birds from the fields. Their father grew squash and was known in the village As the Squash Man. Their grandfather had been The Squash Man too, at ease among the vines. All these years living in the city and his feet still hurt him. When the soldiers took him to war, they gave him boots That did not fit. After the fields of the province were mined By the soldiers and the crops rotted on their stalks And grew moldy where the birds had picked them and his mother Got shot by the soldiers for talking to the rebels and his father Got shot by the rebels for talking to the soldiers, and his sisters Escaped to the city where the police locked them in a brothel, He spent his nights searching, his days washing dishes. As far as he knew his ancestors had always lived on their land. There was nowhere else they had known. In the city he lived Outside in good weather and in abandoned factories in the rainy season. There were too many streets in the city, too many shops and alleys. He would never find his sisters or go back to the countryside. He would never be the Squash Man. After the soldiers Planted the mines, some farmers returned to their fields Because they were starving. A joke went like this: “What did the farmer say to his neighbor?” “I would lend you a hand if I had one.” 36 ✦ STUART DISCHELL ...

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