there’s a skinny kid in me that
stays up all night
listening to the velvet underground
while hammering back monster energy drink
and chain smoking clove cigarettes
while attempting to speak french
with the exchange student that makes drinking red wine
look like a performance art piece,
but someone came along and shaved that skinny kid’s head
and left him scarred with cigarette marks
all up and down his arms and legs
when you’re a second off
it still seems like an emergency
trying to careen off the road
to avoid a squirrel that wandered into the middle of the road
to announce something very important,
without being heard
an ant crawls on my wrist,
and i don’t know where it came from,
but it might be rude, or possibly bad luck,
to kill an ant crawling on me while
i play online chess with my 15 year old nephew
who doesn’t like playing chess,
but will play it every other week with me
because i learned how to play minecraft
so we could play together,
so he kinda owes me
Fred Aiken Writing 