Tuesday Poem

F this and F that

One of the fringe benefits

………………………. of turning sixteen:

………….. a boy can tell the whole world

to get fucked and fly

………………………. down the street,

………….. as if his car were on fire

and the only way to put the fire out

………………………. is driving

………….. as fast as he can.

Oh fuck for when he opens the letter

………………………..that says exactly

………….. what he's afraid it would.

Go fuck yourself

………………………. for when his father tries

………….. to persuade him

nothing will be different

………………………. now that his mom's moving out.

………….. Motherfucker for the walls

that get in the boy's way

………………………. in the hospital

…………… where his grandpop's dying.

Fuck. The teeth biting into

………………………. the lower lip

……………. then the ck—just as good

as spitting into someone's face.

………………………. Nothing else will do.

……………. Just when the boy's sure

he'll never be able to say what he feels,

………………………. this one syllable rises

……………. out of the great silence

all words inhabit

………………………. till they're spoken.

…………….. Fucking A! It's the

kiss of a basketball

………………………. off the backboard.

…………….. A key fitting

into the door he'd thought

………………………. locked forever.

…………….. Light in a girl's just-washed hair.

Fucking A. Once again

………………………. words

…………….. had not failed him.

by Christopher Bursk
from The First Inhabitants of Arcadia
University of Arkansas Press, 2006