15
YOU WILL REMEMBER 65
Outside the bookstore smoking as lovers
held hands and rubber-necked
in specialty shop windows
a homeless man yelling
kill all fucking honkeys
comes running up to me
his hair white clown afro no shirt
eyes like devil dogs in heat.
He gets in my face his breath
hot whiskey sharp like sterilized knives.
Fuck you honkey he says.
I pull courage from my Marlboro.
I didn't do shit to you. Keep walking.
You better remember 65 honkey.
He reached in his Huck Finn shorts
and pulled out a blade
rusted like a 65 Chrysler hubcap
broken windows in the light of the moon.
His light in a dark world.
His pit bull on a chain.
His only friend in a world of laughing faces
and dark alley day dreams.
The only police that arrives at his calls.
I'm gonna gut you cracka piece of shit.
Silver wind chimes at the store next door rattled.
Lovers hid in doorways trying not to
look him in the eyes
cars slowed down.
I pulled out my phone like white people do
and mimicked punching three numbers.
Shaking like some sort of ventrilquist
dummy.
Nuerotic telephone lines in thunder.
He put the knife away
and started walking.
You fucking whiteys and your police.
You will remember 1965.
I tossed my cigarette and walked inside the store
a business type tapped numbers on lap top
kid in black jeans pushed black bangs out of his eyes
little girl in blonde locks ran around freely
ladies in flower skirts sandals and patchouli smiles
literary types recited Pound and Eliot
with puckered lips
while Etta James pleaded for love on the sound system
all sipped seven dollar espressos
and ate things with names like
smoothie crepe and baguette.
Outside the sun was falling down
and I had never felt that white
in my life
but he is reminded
he is black
every time
he tries to
breathe.
Jason "Juice" Hardung's work has appeared in or forthcoming in THRASHER, DRIFT, LANGUAGE&CULTURE.NET, MATTER, IODINE POETRY JOURNAL, THICK WITH CONVICTION, RED PULP UNDERGROUND, JUICE PRESS, SUNKEN LINES, BLACK BOOK PRESS, LUMMOX JOURNAL, ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE, FLUTTER POETRY JOURNAL, GUILD OF OUTSIDER WRITERS, STRAIGHT FROM THE FRIDGE, UP THE STAIRCASE, POLARITY, HEROIN LOVE SONGS, COVERT POETICS, UNDERGROUND VOICES and WSN ANTHOLOGY 2007. He is a co-editor of the FRONT RANGE REVIEW and MATTER and also the managing editor of GER. He wants to learn more about the craft of writing. Not just poetry, but every genre and is just trying to turn all the years wasted splashing around the gutters of the west into something that can be read and reread again and again. He is also part of the Beards.
