heels of a loaf of bread
he didnt mindas a matter of fact he preferred heels
his grandchildren his
daughtershis wife never touched them they
let them remain until he ate them he
couldnt count the times he caught them throwing the heels away still inside the
plastic or cellophane and waxpapered sleeves
for which he had no patience Are you out of your fuckin mind
Joe. Your language. They’re chi .
.
. .
Their my children goddamn it an Ill be damned
if theyre gonna waste food Why do you not
see its waste the four of you are wasting
foodthrowing it away Hell for that matter you even discourage them from eating
leftovers
You eat the leftovers.
I eat leftovers because I
enjoy them but also because if I didnt you an they would throw them away
I didn’t eat them when I was a girl. We
prefer . .
.
. Its not a matter of preference Its
food
It’s food then, that you can eat.
the disagreement never abatedwas
never solved
and when his grandchildren
were flummoxed he was having a small sandwich coldcuts between heels What are you doing, Grampa, there’s fresh
whole loaves of bread in the pantry; why aren’t you having a sandwich with
slices of bread from them? now older and because they werent his children he curbed his tongue blandly he said Im having the sandwich I want
he still thought they were out of their fuckin minds but he wasnt who informed them or had to live
with them
and now the smooth creamy peanut
butter the oily organic peanut butter the almond cashew sunflower seed
butters
he told his grandchildren that they
better keep moving if they stood around
too long or lollygagged theyd be turned into butter smeared on wholegrain crackers and maybe if
they were really lucky on heels of bread
You’re teasing us.
Am I
for that matter they couldnt take peanut
butter or any nut butter sandwiches for school lunches because some kids had allergic
reactionsviolent reactions to nuts
Youre freakin kiddin me he said
to his daughter Thats why children take
their own lunches to school
Dad, you never swapped your lunch
for another kid’s lunch when you were in school?
Sure I did But if I knew I had a allergic reaction I wasnt
so stupid to swap a lunch for a lunch that would make me sick How much pandering
do children need protection Wha because they havent sense enough or intelligence
enough to know what will hurt them Who
wipes their ass Who ties their shoelaces Kahrist
Dad. The school’s . .
.
. The schools liable The schools liable
because a parent or parents havent informed their child suchansuch makes them
sick
They’re only children, Dad.
I was You were Look Were both hereHowd that
happen Yawanna tell me Keep the chaff with
wheat No winnowing Its fiber
fibers good for us
his daughter looked at him concerned slightly humour she better not let condescension show
Yaknow I cant believe I remember this It must have made an impression on me Matthew somechapterverse excuse me if I screw it up paraphrase it
badly Fan winnowing fork in hand He will thoroughly purgeI really remembered that
word purge its aggressive violent he will purge his crop he will
gather his wheat and he will burn up his chaff with you want violence he will burn up his chaff with unquenchable
fire
Unquenchable fire
I might suppose I ferreted and read
all the steamy parts the sex and violent
parts But I couldnt buy into it at all Pissed my parents offNo not parents my Maw
My point is an thank you for allowing me to labour as a child I was informed by my parentsyou were
informed I wouldnt knowingly put a gun
in my mouth play Russian Roulette Wheres
their sense of self an selfpreservation Animals have that An we animals have bigger brains than other
animal species For the most part
he was tempted to bring Skippy Super
Chunky peanut butter when he visited for a weekend but like a good ex-Catholic he defied his temptation
all his grandchildrens
friends and he asked it was a point on contention all their friends wouldnt eat chucky peanut
butter if it was the only peanut butter to be eaten they all wanted creamy peanut butter it wasnt that they preferred it they would only eat smooth peanut butter
and none of the better than two dozen
kids he canvassed much to his
grandchildrens chagrin Stop, Grandpa,
please stop. none of them had an allergy
to peanuts none of them could imagine
not eating peanut butter and the other
butters
he hadnt a clue there were other
butters
seemed to him to be on par with
licorice
red licorice isnt licorice
black licorice is licorice
red licorice has no licorice in
it
strawberry grape watermelon
cherry chocolate licorice arent licorice
either
he heard a giggle behind him at the trash and recycle cans in the kitchen
he turned in his chair
it was his youngest grandchild a little girl
she held a limp plastic bag
weighted by sourdough heels over the trash
Yaint that cute lil one Throw it away an immediately afterwards youre
following it head first
I’m teasing, Grandpa.
Im not
0700-ish, Wednesday,
16 10. 19
1247, Reggae Friday, 17 4.
20
Matthew 3:12
