issue75tiresandtv

                                   ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE.COM

***BIO*** David LaBounty: my work has recently appeared in The Verse Marauder, Four Volts, Autumn Sky Poetry, New Verse News and upcoming in Cerebral Catalyst. I also got vain and started a blog, davidlabounty.blogspot.com.

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Tires and TV

by David LaBounty

He wants his tire fixed,
but I can’t because the
tire is shredded on the inside,
and I offer to sell him a tire,
but he has no money he says,
so I offer to put on his spare,
but he has no spare
because he rode on it too much
the last time he had a flat
and he shifts his feet awkwardly
as he holds the hand of his young son
and doesn’t look at me at all.
He has no money, so I scratch my
head and I rummage through the
pile of scrap tires out back and
I find one that may hold air
for awhile and I put it on,
and I don’t care about the
money, I just want his young
son to get home safely, to make
it home to the front of
the TV where he will feel safe,
safe from this cruel world
where there is no money for tires.
I go to back out his car, but the
battery is dead and it takes a jump
but just barely, and I back out the
car and I glance at the back seat
and stare at that space between
the kid’s car seat and the floor and
it is a sea of fast food wrappers
and unopened bills for satellite TV.

Jan. 2007