Kwahyit!
Kwahyit!
or I swear to Christ Ill come over there and shut yer mouth for yah
pretty ghastly language to use
with ones family but unless you had to
contend with his
you had no standing
His put the shit in apeshit
he could scarcely believe his
eyes
his opportunist brother had
shown up with his uber-opportunist wife in a panel truck
the back rolled open
stacked with moving blankets webstraps dollies and a couple steel Industrial
P-handled
moving trucks
these two made an instance of
opportunity-knocks-only-once look like childsplay
-- And what the fuck do you think youre doin
-- Whaddaya doin here
-- Oops huh
What the fuck do you mean whaddam I doin here Id say me being here was
-- Ya werent supposed to be here for another
day
-- to twist yer nuts Another day evidently
would have been a day too late
-- Whaddaya trying to say
-- Dont Im
in no mood for insults Aint a fuckin
thing you gotta say Id be innarested in hearing
Though you can do And what you can do is button up get back in the cab and roll away
before I puncture the sidewalls
on your fuckin rental truck
Before I come after you with
the icepick
he
caught the sneer on his sisterinlaws puss
And you sister can
roll out of here with yer genius of an old man before I pin you to a tree
like they
did in the good old days of crucifixions
I have half the mind And the rest
of it
is slowly congealing to the affirmative
-- Youre such the prick
Ah Prick that
distinct advantage of living out of state
the lot of them his brothers and sisters hadnt a clue or a bead on him
they couldnt feel his pulse
until he was standing right beside them
then it was evident throbbing visibly in his throat
it helped them resent him
nine kids
he was the only one who not
only couldnt wait to leave when he was young
and did
no door was gonna
crack him on the ass when he left
none did
for all he cared it could have been a saloon door swinging fast and freely in and out
even then it wouldnt have breezed
his shadows ass
their folks died inside a month
of each other
it might have been a condition
of their nearly 70 years marriage until death
do we part
and then the other follows
real quick so they didnt have to clean up the mess
the fallout
he only saw their license
never the Marriage Contract
their Estate
they had their finances buttoned up tight when you manage raise nine
your budget is
scary honed
and
perfected during the mop-up years getting them out of the house afterwards
ticks in columns accounts
it all becomes innate
like riding a bike
drawing a breath
what remained was the house
the
stuff inside the house constituted the Estate
obviously his brother and
sinister-in-law had their ideas regarding its liquidation
but
they always had ideas
they
were fucking idea-mills
and the
more they saw themselves netting a profit
the more energetic and enthusiastic they were
my gawd!
if his brother had thought to
bring his handgun nothing would have stood in his way
in Theory
and there are times when ya just gotta test your Theory
see if it can really hold water
he could almost hear that
conversation right now pedaling back and forth between them
bouncing off the four sides ceiling and floor
of that spacious panel truck they rented
his brother turned himself
inside out trying to please his wife
if nothing more
than to shut her up
hell nobodyd have to pay him to shut her up
but
she was never of substance in his life and then never a concern
the Religious might say She was his brothers cross to bear
and while she was never
religious to speak of unless there was an angle to be played
she and never tenderly cited Scripture regarding his brother He was her cross to bear
and all that cross-bearing made
them a thirsty couple
Christ
it
made him thirsty
he let himself into his parents
house and helped himself to a cold can of beer
all the kids had keys to their
parents house and his parents had keys to all the kids
houses
except his
why
would they
even if he lived in state
one of those unusual familial twists
knots in ones panties
Now
his eldest sister was sharp
but
then she cut her teeth at her mothers side
another why of his parents named her their Executor
an excellent
cold
clear decision
the inside of the house looked
like the coves inside an immaculate rolltop desk or a
fresh-off-the-press crisp catalogue
in the basement were folding
tables of items spoken-for and already divvied out for the
particular brothers
and sisters
it was the only reason he was
there
yet upstairs he was flummoxed by how many things there
were of his parents that
didnt come to roost in his siblings memories
things that had lingered long in
his memory
that helped paint and formulate the existence of their once cohesive
nuclear family
things that tethered
his childhood
the Universal Coffeematic
percolator -- it looked like a silver bullet awaiting
launch into
outer space
the
hollow glass knob on top that elaborated its percolating as bright and as festive as
a beating heart
how many mornings had that
machine perfumed the air above the breakfast table
oversaw the flamboyant
least-phallic Depression glass orange juicer
or
the incessant swapping of cereal boxes around the table that would later fall
into their hands when the cereals were eaten to complete the mazes or
connect-the-dots to solve the impossible riddles printed on the backs of them
there wasnt a clever detective
among the brood
just one of hundreds of things
he figured would have stood out in their memories -- or
maybe they were pithed
that
portion of their brain severed
right along with their common sense
No --
they didnt play in the same yard he did
and No -- he
wouldnt invite them over any more than they would invite him
that beachball was floated and
ruptured
youd have to look on the ground
long and hard to find its mouldy remnants
you would have thought the
half-life of slender colored rubber was longer
his table
the fewest items
the
bone-handled knife and fork carving set
what glasses remained of the bar set
pilsners goblets seidels stanges
and tulips
a few squat cut leadcrystal glasses
a few tall glasses etched paint-and-gold embellished
oddballs
and
the one thing that wouldnt dare be anywhere else
hed threatened --
years earlier -- violence upon anyones head if they thought
they
were going to have it for themselves
an oil
an oil he bought for his parents for a long ago anniversary
worked an entire year to pay off
that and in addition one hundred
dollars upfront cash
what the hell was a kid doing
with one hundred dollars cash
he worked
deposited
$1 and $2 and $3 at a time into his Savings account
he set the empty beer can down
it was still chilled
grabbed an empty liquor box
the
glasses would fit nicely
slipped the carving set into an empty hold
hell there was an
empty hold for the spent beer can
tucked the box under one arm
took
the painting with the other
he had his memories follow
him hang just over his shoulder as he left the house
he thought
out
of the corner of his eye
he saw his brother returning in traffic
sinister not there
but maybe the handgun
just
another piece of cold metal
to warm his hip
or maybe
he
was a bit too cynical
1533, Saturday,
26 7. 14
1343, Tuesday,
29 7. 14
