There was a creek behind the dog pound
where the medical school kept the animals
they experimented on. It was located there
so they could hose the animal shit in the creek.
We explored it. We saw crawfish and bullhead
minnows. Bill would fish in a mud puddle with
a bent pin. We caught a green snake. We knew
it wasn't poisonous. I don't think we even took it
home. We just played with it and let it go. We could use
the tennis courts, the gym, and the Olympic swimming pool.
Bill, who was three years younger, could already hold his own
with me in games. I was awkward. I was nearly six feet tall.
Could that be possible? I remember playing HORSE and badminton
and handball. No team sports. Well, I went out for football at Druid Hills.
I dressed out with the team and practiced. I wasn't any good. I sat on
the bench. My dad ran track at Florida. He was a sprinter. Quick.
He played basketball in high school. Him and Sid Zuckerman and Kay Kamiya.
I reckon they're all dead now. Bill is dead. I'm still here, like the earthquakes
in California. The wild fires. The mud slides. The water shortages. The congestion.
Modern times, mon. Progress. General Electric. General Foods. A little sugar
in your cereal? Have you had in in an olive, the oral polio vaccine? The good news is
you don't have polio. The bad news is you have simian immunovirus (SIV)
and an epidemic of soft-tissue cancers. Two flu shots, Jill? Jill's mother had
Depression brain damage. If Jill made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,
she said, "Two spreads, Jill?" Is this a toll call? No, Ma, I got a WATS line.
There's seasonal flu and there's swine flu. And the crud.
I ain't taking no damn shot.
I'm sick enough.
I don't trust
the government.