by Jeff Munnis
March 1967
(miserable or dead)
Timmy looks at himself
smooth pale skin
eyes clouded by the decayed reflection in the mirror
he tilts his head from side to side
watches his face slide out of sight
stares straight ahead
his portrait stares back
an oval reflection with gray borders
In the reflection of his own eyes
a distorted and unrecognizable form of his own face
Overhead a light bulb hangs from a wire without a cover
A metal bead chain sways
The wall is a hard coat of paint laminated
on dry pressed cardboard
Stains and white residue mottle the surface
The mirror is too cloudy for detailed work on his hair
so he quickly combs it to the side brushes his teeth
He opens the door
Julie leans up against the wall frowns
ready to use the bathroom
He walks through the living room
his mother sits in the kitchen
concentrates on her hands
She looks through the kitchen window to see him walk away
Timmy feels the rough gravel and asphalt on 23rd Street
through the thin leather soles of his boots
He missed the school bus
walks north to Hawthorne Road
waits at the entrance of the Orange & Blue Drive-In
A monument of concrete block painted orange
with square corners that stand up against a pale blue Florida sky
Thin clouds spread out in the jet stream like a lace tablecloth
Warm morning air reminds him of the coming summer heat
the North Florida spring is short
Timmy does not carry any books or paper
stands looking east while he waits for the bus
At night when he runs the projector at the drive-in
he sits above the rows of cars pointed at the screen
their headlights like surrogate eyes for the people inside
Sepia figures on the screen pass through rectangular windshields
move across the car interiors like a river
Voices channel through the wires and cones
of metal speakers in a serious tone and the dialogue erupts
echoes like the distant voices of gods and goddesses
The night before Timmy looked out of the film room
while the projector reels clicked forward
the sounds muffled and distorted
He sat resting his chin in the palm of his hand
His first job bored him by the third night
Leaflets spilled out of the film canisters on the floor
A close-up of Clint Eastwood was printed on the first page
folded inside were descriptions of Sergio Leone
and three Italian westerns
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
He admired Eastwood’s toughness cleverness
his way of extracting revenge
the way he rode off on his horse
right after the triumph
the bad guys left miserable or dead
(a patch of sand)
The same afternoon
along the edge of Hawthorne Road
a dog trots west toward Manero’s Restaurant
attracted by the smell of grease and garbage
stored behind the kitchen
She follows the aroma rather than her eyes
she strays onto the pavement
the same time as a large white Lincoln passes
hits her in the right hip
spins her onto her back in the center of the road
Another car passes swerves to miss
Her yelp is faint against
waves of sound created by the cars
She pulls herself to the side of the road
with her front legs and tries to stand
Her rear legs shake she is stunned
her sense of smell numbed by the exhaust of the cars
she reaches with her head toward her back legs
smells the blood
the metallic exhaust on her fur
From the side of the road she watches
a red truck pass
then a blue car hits a patch of sand
that swirls in the air and stings her eyes
She blinks needs tears
Slowly she gets up and limps
sniffs at a trail of blood that runs
along a yellow stripe on the road
Turned around she passes through
the gate of the Orange & Blue Drive-In
Broken dragonfly wings and dead resurrection beetles
litter the windowsill of the ticket kiosk
paint flakes curl on the wall and the sun
in the west lights the wooden door
(past the ticket window)
At the bathroom window a middle-aged man
in a white t-shirt adjusts his glasses watches the dog walk
past the ticket window
His apartment is built into the back of the screen
orange paint blends the staircase and roofline
into the block orange wall
He calls out ‘Penney did you see that’
She answers from one of the bedrooms ‘See what’
‘A car hit that dog on the hind legs
spun it around on the road and kept on going
That dog just got up real slow walked over here
like it was going to the movie
right past the ticket window’
‘The movie won’t start for another three hours
What they doing coming in so early’
‘Jesus are you listening
The dog not the car
Jesus’ he said again to himself
and thought of his Jewish mother
‘I thought you said the car hit the dog’
‘I did’
‘And it’s not dead’
‘No it just got up and walked over here’
The man leans over and puts his forearms on the windowsill
The woman looks out
her hands on her knees bent over
her nose almost touches the window screen
Two faces stare out of adjacent windows
talk to each other
‘Do you think we ought to check on that dog . . . Morgan’
The man stepped back and looked in the mirror
tried to decide if he needed to shave
‘No it walked off after getting hit it’s probably ok’
(from her bedroom)
Timmy’s boots made a hollow scraping sound
on the hard soil
Penney could hear them from her bedroom
The first time she saw Timmy
he lifted his arm to wipe his nose
on the sleeve of his jacket
She guessed his age fifteen
Timmy wore jeans boots white undershirt
and a flannel shirt with frayed sleeves
His blonde hair flat against his skull
Freckles dotted the skin below his eyes
and the bridge of his nose
In the summer he wore the same boots and jeans
with a red t-shirt
and no underwear because it was too hot
More than once he crossed Hawthorne Road
without a glance only to get to the other side
and think ‘How stupid’
Timmy slowed down when he saw Morgan
come down the stairs from his apartment
let him walk through the gate first
lagged behind not wanting to speak
(an accident by the evidence)
Each step for the dog had been painful
blood ra
n down both hind legs from underneath the tail
The dog hopped as if something was stuck
in the paw of one hind foot
Slow and steady she moved
to the concession stand and lay down
between two gray plastic trash cans
Her head rested on a dirty blue towel
when Morgan found her
her eyes stared out toward the pine trees
west of the drive-in where the sun set
Morgan had never seen anything like this
he squatted down to watch
Convulsions jerked her stomach
her legs pawed in the air
She gave birth
Two gray pups slid out her birth canal
struggled with the sticky membranous tissue around their eyes
She twisted around toward the pups and growled in pain
before she licked the sticky film from the eyes and nose of each pup
When she was done
she severed the umbilical cords with her teeth
and then collapsed
The pups burrowed around blindly
until they found their mother’s teats
and started to suck
Morgan stood up when he realized the mother had died
The pups continued to nurse
Timmy walked up
stood behind Morgan
watched him stare at the pups
Death was in the eyes of the dog
the same death he had seen in animals
on his grandfather’s farm
Something hurt inside when he looked into the cloudy eyes
He heard the car hit the dog from 23rd Street
The eyes were still
The legs twitched
He had seen a chicken run without a head
seen his father slaughter pigs
dress them out hang them by their hind legs
and let the blood drain onto the ground
This was a bloodless death
and the lack of blood made him ill
Morgan walked away without the swagger of Eastwood
unsure puzzled by senseless random events
An accident by the evidence
but he repeated to himself
that he didn’t believe in accidents
(massing in the Sinai)
Three more rounds of Eastwood that night
everyone would have to work later than usual
because of the triple feature
The spring days were longer
Timmy wondered when Morgan would drop back
to two films on weeknights
As Morgan turned toward the apartment
Timmy saw Penney bring out
a blanket and newspapers
Morgan took the blanket
she held the newspaper open to the front page
Morgan noticed the story
—Egyptian troops massing in the Sinai—
then turned away
walked back to the dead dog
Timmy looked out from the concession stand
wanted to tell David and Gary about the dog
hoped they would sneak in
from the woods behind the drive-in
David was afraid of the woods in the dark
afraid of getting caught
When he ran he ran sideways to look back
Lived with his grandparents
since his father died
David was timid feared
he would get caught
when he did something wrong
Gary would come alone if David wimped out
Timmy thought at least
he would act unafraid of the woods at night
(his mother’s body)
Morgan’s white t-shirt tucked neatly into gray
pleated slacks He wore a black belt with a silver buckle
black shoes and black-rimmed glasses silver flecks
in his dark hair made him look distinguished
when he was dressed in a white shirt and tie
The glasses made him look studious
like an accountant or librarian that poured over books
He squatted down to look at the dog
set the blanket on the ground
He could not decide what to do with the pups
‘Such inconvenient timing’ he said to himself
it was the same thought he had
when he stared into the casket at his father
There is nothing else to do but to go on
He stared at his mother’s body
during her funeral without emotion
The same way she stared at his father
he remembered her lack of feeling
something he thought was related
to her being so impatient and indignant
Something natural he thought
‘something that I have to accept’
Instinctively he looked at his watch 5:30
One hour to clean the concession stand
and set up the movie reels for Timmy
He felt nausea rise when he watched
the pups nurse on a corpse
but he would not pull them away
Morgan stood slowly the pain in his knees
reminded him of how physically weak he felt
As he walked up to the door of the concession stand
he looked at the white popped kernels of corn in the sand
shook his head
His shoe caught the edge of the concrete
he stumbled forward
never losing sight of the popcorn
Morgan turned back to look at the pups
yelled out ‘Timmy! Take that dog somewhere and bury it’
Stomach bile gurgled in his throat
Timmy was upstairs
looked for the movie reels
He walked down the steps
wondered why he had to be the one
to get rid of the dog’s body
Morgan stood by the popcorn machine
his face turned away from Timmy
held his hand over his mouth
Their eyes met and Morgan nodded his head
toward the doorway and the dog
(abandonment in every man)
Timmy grabbed a shovel from the utility room
The pups were asleep
their mouths still clung to their mother’s teats
He spread out the blanket
moved the pups to it
folded the edges up into a bowl shape
Flies walked over the eyes of the mother
He brushed them away
and looked into the clouded stare
He felt like something
was still alive in the dog that stared out at him
trapped in a lifeless body unable to escape
He reached down
grabbed the dog’s skin behind the neck with one hand and picked it up
The body was heavy he noticed for the size
The shovel in his left hand the dog in his right
he walked dragged the corpse through the sand
and weeds to the back corner of the drive-in property
He dug a hole the soft sand collapsed and re-filled the hole
but he continued until he hit moist packed sand
Water seeped into the hole two feet down
because the water table was so close to the surface
He hollowed out the bottom of the hole
wide enough for the dog to lay flat
Timmy looked at the dog’s eyes again
He felt something solid and real stare back
He gently covered the head first
then pushed the rest of the pile of sand into the hole
Back at the concession stand Morgan stood next to the pups
Timmy wondered why was it so hard for him
He noticed when he was twelve
his own father
had a wea
kness in some things
how he gave up when confronted
how he was afraid to learn
Timmy began to look for the same weakness
the abandonment in every man he met
Morgan walked several steps away and looked back
and seemed to shiver with the memory of what he saw
He stepped further away
then put his arms around himself
and started to walk toward the road
Timmy saw loneliness in his eyes
and the unwillingness to talk
(between the cracks)
A month before in February
on his fifteenth birthday
Timmy worked on the roof of his home
with his father Sam Sam would pull the nail out
of the sheet metal lift the edge
and Timmy put tar over the hole
Then Timmy stood on the edge of the panel
to hold it in place while Sam put back the nail
‘It’s time for you to get a job son’
Timmy looked at the orange letter F on Sam’s baseball hat
‘We got too many people in one house’
No discussion just a conclusion
Sam’s arms spotted with pink and brown flesh
shook as he worked
Timmy squatted down
brushed tar over another hole
looked at the dry brown okra stems in the garden
the small green tomato plants
that grew in rusted tin cans
Sam forgot Timmy worked at the drive-in
so Timmy just listened
Sam looked up ‘Hell son
I was married at fifteen’
He said it in a way that the word
fifteen held some kind of finality
an irreversible milestone crossed
Fourteen was the magic number in Timmy’s family for the women
His mother Anne was fourteen when he was born
His grandmother was 43
which made her fourteen
when she was pregnant with his mother
Julie was fourteen and pregnant
the fourth generation in 43 years
Sam walked in the house and Timmy followed
Their boots clonked and shuffled
over the dry wood floor
worn smooth by scuffling shoes
Dirt fell between the cracks
(the only one)
Anne stood next to the kitchen table
held a cigarette and comb in one hand
scissors in the other her tired eyes sunk behind dark circles
Julie sat in a chair silent with wet hair
and a towel wrapped around her shoulders
Anne combed out the wet hair
tried to cut a straight line across the thin strands
Julie looked up at Timmy expressionless
He couldn’t imagine David
or Gary moved out on their own
Gary’s mother worked full time
David’s grandfather worked at the post office
‘Fifteen’ Timmy thought ‘time to move out Damn’
Every night in his bed
was the same as far back as Timmy could remember
The paneling in the house so thin
he could hear his mother and father exhale
or the sound of the springs when they climbed into bed
Across the room he could see his sister’s bed
Julie was like a crease in the sheets
barely visible in the light that came in
the window from the neighbor’s porch
She was like a dream her skin white
the blue veins in her stomach the same color as her eyes
He wanted to blame her and he resented her
She had a way of tilting her head
when she looked at Timmy
She would laugh and cry with the same sounds
while tears fell in drops on her cheeks
Timmy imagined he heard a baby’s cries mixed with Julie’s
‘Never’ he thought ‘if I was a girl I’d never let myself get pregnant’
The sheet was crumpled up between her legs
Drops of rain vibrated the sheet metal roof like a snare drum
The compressor in the refrigerator ran continuously
the sides of the gas oven popped and creaked
Sam coughed cleared his throat
and went into the bathroom
His father had yellow eyes
he was thin as a willow branch and cynical as spit
Timmy got up that night looked out the window
at his girlfriend Melissa’s house
opened each drawer quietly
and stuffed all of his clothes into a canvas bag
He looked at the bag on the floor
Every toy he owned had been thrown away or given away
Everything was there no pictures no books and no cards
When he left the room there was nothing left to call him back
nothing to possess No one could find anything
to prove he lived there unless someone found his hair on a pillow
He picked up the pillow and pushed it into the bag
Rain fell harder the drum rolls muffled his steps
The front door closed without sound
On the porch Timmy watched
the rain disappear where it hit the ground
and waited listened for his mother’s voice
He imagined her telling him to stay
What would he say
‘It’s time—Dad asked me to leave—I’m ready’
Across the street at David’s house
a faint light was on in the bathroom
He imagined his friend Gary asleep in his bed
with his Beatles posters on the wall
‘I’m the only one that can leave’
He started down the steps stopped and looked back
at the dark windows
then stepped over a puddle of water
He felt the raindrops hitting his clothes
as he walked quickly out into the road
and turned up 23rd Street
When he reached Hawthorne Road
the rain had soaked through to his skin
and he looked for a place to sit and wait
He walked back to the antique store
across from the drive-in opened the back screen door
to a utility room and made himself at home
The next morning Rundi found Timmy
at the back of his store and smiled
‘Timmy Timmy You have run away from home like a little boy’
Timmy’s head rested on the bag of clothes
and he looked up at the small round face
of the Indian shopkeeper
‘Can I stay here’
Rundi looked down at him with dark brown eyes
and noticed the pale skin that matched his mother Anne’s complexion
He saw a small soul wondered how it would grow
‘Of course and you will need a job right’
‘I work at the drive-in’
‘But if you stay here I need rent You cannot afford rent’
Rundi knew Sam was often out of work
He looked at Timmy what did it mean for the boy
Timmy stared at Rundi
‘You don’t get rent now
No one would ever rent this small space’
Rundi laughed ‘You are very smart Timmy
‘Work for me clean up after the auctions and you can stay
I’ll change the back lock and put a lock on the utility room
then you can use the bathroom and kitchen’
He wondered would Sam come and look for Timmy
Timmy looked around
His mind tried to catch up with his eyes
This room was bigger than his room at home
He settled into the wood frame back porch of Rundi’s store
It made sense in a way he did not quite understand
The windows the doors felt like they would stay closed
He felt safe but restless did not know what his feelings meant
The space was his
Rundi walked to the front of the store
Morning dew covered the window looking out on 23rd Street
the sunlight was yellow and the air still
shadows from the pine trees
behind the convenience store lay across the floor
Timmy got up and went to the window
Sam’s truck passed by and coasted up to the stop sign
the gears meshed hard
he wondered if his father knew he left home
He wasn’t sure if his father cared
he couldn’t remember if he heard him say ‘I love you’
Everything clicked like a lock and the tumblers fell into place
(the first time he kissed)
At the corner of SE 23rd
and the two lanes of Hawthorne Road stood the Quick Stop
Rundi’s Antique Store in an old wood frame house
and across the street the sign at the Orange & Blue Drive-In
A Fistfull of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Timmy sat behind the projector on a Tuesday night
and watched the images move on the screen
Clint Eastwood stumbled back from the impact of bullets
Underneath his poncho was a steel plate
The smell of popcorn seeped up through the floor
made Timmy hungry Penney climbed the stairs
on the outside of the building opened a screen door
and looked at Timmy ‘How much longer’
He looked at the counter on the projector
‘Ten minutes, about’
Where were Gary and David
She sat a bottle of Coke down on a folding table
He leaned over a metal chair rocked back and forth
while he watched the movie
‘You like this stuff’ Penney sat down next to him
‘It’s bloody’ He stared straight ahead ‘It’s real-like
They don’t shave don’t have to’
She looked at the contour of Timmy’s face in the light
his chin bare no shadow of a beard
‘A man is real if he doesn’t shave’
He looked at her ‘I like the rugged cowboys the ugly ones
that fight and spit back at their enemies’
Voices from the film echoed outside the projection room
‘You live at home’ Penney asked
hoped he had some interest just in her
‘Not any more I have my own place’
She had seen him disappear behind the antique store
Penney stared at the dirt under his fingernails
‘Can I come over sometime’
Timmy looked back at Penney
The room was illuminated by colored light from the projector
images on the film were reflected on the windows
shadows crossed her face
Confused and unsure
She was as old as his mother maybe
He asked and tried to keep his tone light
curious unimportant enough for her to answer
‘Thirty Why’ She looked at Timmy
curious about her own interest in him
thought he was judging her and her appearance
She reached up with both hands
brushed her hair back and wondered about Timmy’s mother
if she had the same thin blonde hair and fair skin
the freckles under her eyes and on the bridge of her nose
The movie ended and the film clicked in the reel
Timmy turned off the projector and turned on the lights
Penney got up and reached for the film canister
at the same time as Timmy their shoulders touched
and Timmy grabbed first pulled the canister away
‘I’ve got it’ and turned away
Her skin was cool and he could smell her hair
The smell of Penney was nothing like Melissa
He wanted to smell around her neck feel her hair
and feel if her lips were cool or warm
The first time he kissed Melissa it was awkward
their teeth collided before their lips met
In his brief fantasy about Penney
there was slower movement not so awkward
positioned just right easy to search and find each other’s lips
Penney left while he put everything away
Her shoes landed hard on each step going down the stairs
jarred something loose in her
let out her frustration
She opened the cabinet under the sink
pulled out the towels and the sound
of the ceramic white metal doors
echoed in the empty concession stand
The amber light in the projection room glowed
and Timmy looked at his hands saw the dirt
and remembered the buried dog
Penney must have moved the pups somewhere
where
He turned off the light next to the door
and waited for his eyes to adjust
Penney heard the door close while she wiped down the counter
with a towel and called out ‘Goodnight’
He smelled his hands felt their dryness
and started down the steps
He did not want to stop
‘See you tomorrow’
(strands of blonde hair)
Timmy walked past Rundi’s store
and looked at the dark window of his room
His boots dragged through bits of gravel
Self-conscious of his own sounds
he picked up his feet
His heels hit the road and he pointed his toes at David’s house
He tapped on the windowsill
and David parted the curtain ‘Quiet I’m awake’
David was always serious
controlling his manners
cautious like his grandmother
afraid of attention
afraid to let the focus land on him
Timmy walked toward Gary’s house as David closed the back door
He ran to Timmy and they walked in silence
through the thick grass in Gary’s yard
Dew had already formed
Gary stood on the back porch and held a metal lighter
that he clicked open and shut
He walked out to meet them and they went down 9th Avenue
to the end and they followed a dirt road
to a spot where a couch had been dumped next to a pile of trash
Gary flicked on the lighter and held it in front of his face
to light a cigarette Timmy took one out of his pocket
He had four Camels stolen
from the pack on the seat of his father’s truck
‘What’s it like living with Rundi’ Gary asked
‘I don’t live with Rundi’ Timmy offered a cigarette to David
who refused to smoke ‘he lives down Hawthorne Road a mile away’
Glass bottles littered the ground
David sat and listened stared at his feet
his brown hair parted on the side
the Vitalis hair oil glistened in the moonlight
Timmy asked ‘You ever seen Penney’
Gary had David had not Timmy went on
‘She got so close to me tonight I could smell her hair’
He wondered would he be content
to spend his life in this neighborhood
would he ever have somewhere else to go
David cut in ‘My grandmother noticed her
wa
nted to know what a grown woman was doing
in an apartment with her father’
Gary laughed ‘Your grandmother knows everyone’s business’
They all laughed
The conversation continued slow and relaxed
Timmy tried one of Gary’s cigarettes
‘Damn Gary your cigarettes smell like soap’
They all laughed again and Gary turned to Timmy
‘You still smell Penney’s hair’
Timmy sat with a Camel inches from his face
ready to light and paused wanted to say something
They waited then broke into laughter
They smoked a few more
Timmy got up ‘I’m tired I gotta go’
Gary looked at him ‘Your momma ain’t callin’’
Timmy looked down at him
‘No but your momma’s gonna whip you for stealin’ cigarettes’
The gray sand and dew stuck to their shoes
and they stomped on the pavement
to shake it off before heading home
They split up when they reached the paved road
under the streetlight and Timmy looked at them
‘how much longer would they meet at night’
He forgot to tell them about the dog
The walk to his room felt different than walking home
He walked a little at a time out of the lives of his parents
He stepped into his room quietly took off his clothes
and went to the shower The bathroom light was bright
and hurt his eyes Green tile and the white grout made a strange
checkerboard pattern The floor was polished clean
and he could see a reflection of the overhead light
He let the hot water pour on his neck and closed his eyes
thought of Penney while he rubbed soap between his legs
When he was finished he saw strands of blonde hair
collected on top of the drain stuck together by semen
He took some toilet paper and wiped it up
dropped it in the toilet and flushed
(just to make sure)
Thursday night Morgan lay on top of the sheets in bed
The light coming in made the white walls look gray
and the shadows from the window blinds were tilted at an angle
Everything looked out of line
Marie Penney’s mother surfaced in his thoughts
He pushed her back drifted between sleep and waking
for hours before giving in to sleep
The thoughts in his restless philosophical mind were undying
There were times when he felt like his life had ended
but this time when he left his marriage and home
he searched for the truth in the secrets he kept from his wife
Despair at work petty lies
about time spent drifting doing nothing
avoided Marie’s questions
Love Or Truth Morgan decided
he could not love without truth so truth came first
This set in motion a torrential sequence of questions and fear
Could he change Would the world let him change
Or drag him back into the patterns of his old life
His old life the real fear
Endlessly taking inventory of Coke bottles in wooden crates
reconciling bank statements matching invoices with delivery tickets
He laid down on the floor at home every night exhausted
He replaced the long Saturdays of inventory and numbers
and replaced Marie’s probing questions with silence
He bought the Gainesville Drive-In
by simply taking over the payments of an owner
anxious to leave town re-named it and didn’t look back
There was his daughter Penney
a distraction
He could not understand her
or where she was headed with her life
He could never say what he wanted
for her to get out of his home
Marie to leave him alone
If anything was going to drive him to prayer
Dear God he thought dear God
Help them find someone else
Morgan traced the length of time
he had put what he wanted on hold
waiting for her to leave
The number of years he had provided for Penney
—thirty—made him wonder how long
he would have to continue
His thoughts ended with a deep sigh
because he knew he did not have to depend on her
to make the decision if he made some of his own
Morgan looked down at his bare feet
sticking out the legs of his pants
like they belonged to a mannequin
His feet were pale white and the hair
growing on the knuckles of his toes
in his mind was a dead giveaway
they belonged to an aging man
He moved them a little just to make sure
he could still tell his toes what to do
(breathing room)
Penney’s shoes scraped the concrete
steps that led up to the apartment
Morgan sat up, looked out the window
and watched Timmy walk across Hawthorne Road
The key in the lock turned over the tumblers
and he heard the glass jalousie windows creak
as Penney pushed against the door
‘For God sake Penney can’t you come in the door
without pushing on the glass It’s going to break through one day
and I don’t want something more to fix’
Morgan’s eyes stared straight up at the ceiling
‘All right all right You nag at me all the time
but I didn’t see you out here ready to hold the door open
I’ve got the money from the concession stand
and ticket sales and dirty towels that have to be washed’
Penney shoved the door with her left foot
and the metal frame rattled against the concrete
Morgan called out from his bedroom
‘How much were ticket sales’
The cash boxes rattled across the kitchen table
and he heard the quiet thump of the towels on the floor
‘About $80’
‘How about sales in the concession stand’
‘About $50’
Morgan calculated how much money they cleared
above the cost of the film rental Timmy’s time
and the cost of snack foods It was barely enough
to cover their daily costs but still not too bad for a weeknight
The weekend would need to be good
to get a little breathing room
All he wanted each week was a little breathing room
Across the street Timmy lay down
on the mattress Rundi gave him
Melissa his old girlfriend was thirteen
Penney was 30 He listened to the sound
of passing cars After 2 AM it was quiet
