3/30

Remember Erich Sr.

When he refused a pig liver’s chance

Checked himself out & rode

The poison home and all the way

To Hell in a matter of weeks

They laid him in a black leather jacket

In a big shiny box all plush

With pearly white satin

His death mask more clay than man

Sunken and weak all the power

Gone from the jaws and teeth

That ripped at skin for three hours

In Yankee Stadium when draft

Beer was poured gasoline

On the fire of his livid want

In the days following his disposal

Erich Jr. wore his leather jacket

Religiously played with pocket

Knives the old devil left behind
Didn't cry or mind when he nicked

And bled his own hand’s flesh

His blue eyes turned black coal

And a fire burning inside

Started to pour its smoke

From the barrel of nostrils

& throat his fingernails always

Dirty scratched like a tomcat

And was he afraid of showering

Was that what kept him unclean

What had the devil done 

When I wasn't looking  

To bewitch water and soap

I inhaled the smoke like a shotgun

In reverse we draped and dragged

Around his house and yard

Trolled parks and defunct rails

Toured broken homes like

Misfit pubescent Property Brothers

Mortified when he tried to steal

Airheads from Krauzer’s called the

Owner a dothead threw change

Across the counter when he abused

His mother for the entire ride

She gave us everywhere

Petrified when he held blunted

Kitchen blades to my throat threw me

Into walls pinned me beneath

His obesity and the added weight

Of the devil on his back &

In his dreams & his blood

& his drugs 

So this is what the abuse feels like

A bond that grows us stronger

With each betrayal each forgiveness

Each twisted test we orbit

Each other like a living planet

And a dead rock inseparable

As the wreckage of an old

Collision so that years later

I think of our childhood

With a touch of guilt

And you too laid in a box

Looked smaller and weaker
Than you ever were