From Nerve Cowboy #20, Fall 2005

 

THE ROLE OP A LIFETIME

 

When I was 3

my Dad made me a cape and a hat with ears and I jumped

from rock to rock

flying through the air sure

I was Mighty Mouse

At 5

I was Gene Autry

walked down the sidewalk wearing gun and holster and bandanna

making everyone call me Gene

instead of Fred

At 16

sang along with Doors records

feeling like Jim Morrison

Now

I'm a machinist

I wear greasy pants and steel-toed shoes

have a toolbox parked next to me on a workbench

act like I never got A's

in the U.C L.A. Ph.D. program in English literature

read

my poetry on BBC Radio

have

a bookcase full of Whitman and Frost and Bukowski

I read over and over again

Now

I pick up calipers and shop rag

shout

to Lou on machine #15,

"Thank God it's payday!"

flip my 3-foot-long socket wrench up in the air end over end

and catch it

and smile

from ear to ear in the greatest role I ever

created.

 

 

Fred Voss

Long Beach, CA