Heading Down 6th
Her child, their child, had finally stopped
breathing,
by their choice to unplug the plug that kept it going.
And now the heart was on its way to some-other
eleven year old girl.
He held her close
and he focused on
the stairs as they came,
the street as they walked,
and he only felt her and his own
broken heart -
all the way to the turn into a parking lot.
The space that held the rented car,
not the twisted one.
Heading Up 6th
He saw them
the man, the woman
walking toward him;
the man protecting the woman from
the neighborhood
the graffiti
and he knew
more than anything -
that the man was protecting her -
from him.
And when they turned to avoid passing
like they all did -
his heart just broke,
just like it always did.
He saw the ratty dumpsters
and a flattened bottle of Pepsi
shoved his hands in his pockets
and thought, “Fuck ‘em.”
