Home(town) Boys

I hate those
backwards snapback
hockey jersey toting
wide grin
“what’s up, fag?”
boys.

“yo, reach the basement”
for beer pong and
everything is supreme and
“elite bro”
boys.

they’ll spit sunflower seeds in
the parking lot,
and they’ll pee on people’s cars
when they’re drunk.

listening to their conversations -
like watching a rhino fight a giraffe
in slow motion
with pool noodle necks
and boulder bodies rumbling.

they find the worst moment
to offer you
their cigarette or beer
and you take it,
laughing at them with
your eyes while
their eyes
undress you.

and just when they            couldn’t
be                     worse
they uncurl one of their fists to reveal
some soft thing
there
a tiny little –

“I think about dying sometimes,
but I couldn’t do that to my Mom”
He looks at me sideways
and I remember him in kindergarten
acting like a puppy.

Artwork by Francois Bard