XI — A man up along a road
XI
Now see what you think about this: a man up along a road stood next to a tan colored car. Down the road and further on up the road: police. Got the road blocked. The man sees these police up on the verges, fencing in his brain all through the long day. Standing under the sun shuffling around. He’s playing the games of love and laughter over and over. Playing through his childhood. Maybe there’s still a way out of this? Maybe I can find redemption. The man says to himself. Those police waving their twelve-gauge at me. I got me a twelve-gauge. I got me a small child on the back seat here. Hey hey the news chopper swoops overhead. I hope you lose a fuckin’ tail rotor grins the man to himself. And he looses off a lazy shot upwards. Makes those police all lie in the dirt and get down tight behind those doors. It won’t be long now. Man cradles the gun over his left arm and lights him up a cigarette. Ah! Yeh he laughs to himself! Now when you go, you go with a cigarillo clamped tightly in your jaw. Lets the nicotine take it’s toll. Ah! Ha yeh. Those police keep talkin’ at him through bull-horns. Make some sense pig, yells the man down the road. He watches a guy with a big mustache and a tan-check sports jacket move out from the wall of white cars. Thinks to himself: won’t be long. Mister. We understand how you feel! So says you. But I tell you: a life-times work to bring us here. You can’t understand that. Yes we can, replies the man with the horn. The wind ruffles up his honey colored hair and he’s about a hundred yards away. We know what’s happened, and I believe it won’t be long until things work out for you. We will help you get where you wanna be, man. The enthusiasm kind of dies away just before he finishes. So the man with the twelve gauge takes a shot down the road at him. Misses all but a couple of wing-mirrors. Shooom-baaa! Makes those pigs dive under the tarmac! Then the man lets the barrel droop to the ground, and he touches his breast pocket. All this captured on news-cam. The bit in between the now and the then is missing. We’ll get there. For now: that riles those pigs and they spring up like some dead army. Comes wailing up the road letting off all manner of weaponry. The man in the middle feels a little wave of disappointment. Looks at the small dark-haired child on the backseat of the car. Points the twelve-gauge at him just to see what it feels like. The child doesn’t mind. So the man pulls back the hammer on that old gun. The child doesn’t mind so the man grins and smiles at him. Then he turns back to those pigs squealing up at him. And stepping out from behind the open door he shouts those pigs down: Hey! Hey! See what you think about this! See what you think about this. And the cigarette drops from his mouth as the barrel goes in. And the cigarette drops from his mouth and the barrel goes in. And the cigarette drops from his mouth and the barrel goes.
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