From Nerve Cowboy #23 Spring 2007

 

 

SAD MAN VS. POLEY

 

Sudasi J. Clement

 

in this video the aging skateboarder

with unbearably sad eyes

is the one our boy likes best.

we think he doesn’t know the man is sad.

we don’t want to be the ones to tell him.

hey bud, we say, let’s watch something else--

but our child is under a spell.

the sad man has scars inside and out.

they crawl to the surface from a faraway place

where a million years ago boys popped

wheelies to show off for girls.

 

things to look at instead of the sad man:

soaring birds, sunlight through your rainbow lashes,

your giant plush polar bear named poley!

 

poley falls off the couch

and stares at us from the floor.

now they show the man when he was just a kid

with long blond hair and a rolling stones t-shirt.

he’s catching some air on his stickered skateboard.

hey! he looks like me! shouts our boy,

and in his mind they are almost brothers.

 

 

 

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