veteran in Flint by David LaBounty

 

it was a do good
kind of day
those of us
doing good
because
our kids
had to
good
for the
service
hours
at
school

and there we were

a collection of
honor students
and
parents
on hand
to help
out a middle
aged
veteran
with a
disabled
adult son
and a recently
disabled
wife

and we were in that part of Flint

north side,
just past
Hurley Hospital

a collection of
vacant lots
and
liquor
stores
and
clapboard
houses
like a salad
of ignored
gardens
just
tossed together
in it and

fluoride, he said

makes your
brain soft
and they
put fluoride
in the
water
to make the
population
just more
than passive

and he told
me all this
and his
teeth
were yellow
and there
were gray
and black
hairs coming
out of the
nighttime
of his
nose

and he
asked me
about my
coat, about
the
Columbia
label
on my
chest

what’s Columbia? he asked

and me,
I was
embarrassed
for a moment,
embarrassed
that my
body was
saying
something
my heart
didn’t
feel

oh
Columbia,
I said
that… that’s just
a thing

oh, he said
I remember Columbia,
it was a college in the sixties
a lot of the
protesters
back then
went to
Columbia

and the day
passed that
way and
later in
the afternoon
I headed
out of the
city

dropped
my son
off back
to his
mother’s
suburban home
and I headed
back to my own
suburban home

but I had to
stop at Kroger first

I needed
something
for dinner

they have those
pre-prepared meals
at Kroger now
all of the
ingredients
right in the box

I was torn
between the
pan-seared salmon
or the
lemon-glazed flat iron steak

I couldn’t pick either one
so I listened to my heart
and
my heart said
it wanted a
Tombstone pizza

so I got that instead

I took it home
and heated it up

I ate while flicking
through the
200 channels
of my cable tv

and no one
said anything
on the tv
that night

200 channels

and
no one
said
anything
at all

secure your own mask first, and then help others by David LaBounty

the men
who
sit
at
bars
alone

they
take
the
stool
with
their
sideways
hearing

they
order
their
beer
and
look
around
for
a
moment
and
then
look
ahead

the beer arrives

and
they
drink
the
beer
slowly
and
pull
out
their
phone
and
start
scrolling
with
their
thumbs

there
are
always
so
many
people
there

underneath

their
pale
solitary
thumb

the body and the blood by David LaBounty

meat

she was
meat
not
like
food
but
maybe
more
like
the
body and the blood

of the
naked
Christ

getting
me
through
the
wishbone
of my
yellow years

years
like
the
hollow
points
of
a thousand
amens

come on
next lady

come and
pray
with me
again

craigslist by David LaBounty

sometimes i look

the way one looks
for another job
even when one
is happily employed

so here i am

looking for love
and
other love
among the
peace signs

and often,
when the
women
are my
age, just

at the
beginning
of the end

they are
all looking
for the
same kind
of thing

a single white male

hardworking
and
sane
and
stable

and i think
i am all of
those things

but, i
tell myself
as i walk
away from
the screen

if i’m here

how stable can i be

on the death of the family dog by David LaBounty

and maybe
our shared
grief will
bring us back
together

and maybe
she will
say that
I know
it’s been
a year
but perhaps
we could
try again

and I
would come
back home

triumphant
like a
fallen king
returning
from exile,
carrying

loads of
laundry
my ex-wife
knows
nothing
about

the laundry
filling
both of
my empty
hands

Two Poems by David LaBounty

America

America
today
you are
grilled meat
and hand
shakes

today
you are
egalitarian
blue skies
and
cold
forgiving
beer

today
you are
the air-
conditioned
Cadillac
idling
at the
light

today
you are
the middle
aged woman
at the
Laundromat
with varicose
veins and
blue jean
shorts

today
you
are the
man
who lives
at the
corner
of
Clarkston
and
Lapeer
his bike
overloaded
with blankets
and
plastic
bags

today
you are
this and
a thousand
other
tree
and
flag-lined
streets

waiting

for another
forgetful
parade

____________

a concern

please
put
the
mercy
bird
back
in its’
cage

I don’t
want
it to
swallow
the
poems
I’ve been
leaving
behind

poems like
bread crumbs

poems
that I’ve
scattered
along
the
path that
leads to
the
near side
of
heaven