Old Photo / Black Luger © 2018 Tom Greggs
This is the house where
I first heard Hank Williams
Where I rode my first bike
And learned the dangers of gravity
And the nature of bicycle brakes which
Had somehow escaped discussion
The house where I broke a bone
Bouncing myself off the bed
Where I first saw my father’s
New Gypsy Red Chevy Bel Air
Where my brother almost died
Falling into a tub of hot water
Or choked on a toy wheel after
I startled him into swallowing
And how fear can be expressed as anger
And how a whipping can be viewed as unfair
The house where my father carved me
A pine-wood replica of his Luger
My first town haircut amid the men
Smelling of machine oil and tonic
Where my first baseball mitt fit a righty
Though I was left handed
From where I was sent to buy milk
Buying a pearl-handled cap gun instead
This is the photo of the house with the yard
That will be forever filled with weeds
And of two boys who will take
A lifetime to know each other
This is the house where
I first heard Hank Williams
Where I rode my first bike
And learned the dangers of gravity
And the nature of bicycle brakes which
Had somehow escaped discussion
The house where I broke a bone
Bouncing myself off the bed
Where I first saw my father’s
New Gypsy Red Chevy Bel Air
Where my brother almost died
Falling into a tub of hot water
Or choked on a toy wheel after
I startled him into swallowing
And how fear can be expressed as anger
And how a whipping can be viewed as unfair
The house where my father carved me
A pine-wood replica of his Luger
My first town haircut amid the men
Smelling of machine oil and tonic
Where my first baseball mitt fit a righty
Though I was left handed
From where I was sent to buy milk
Buying a pearl-handled cap gun instead
This is the photo of the house with the yard
That will be forever filled with weeds
And of two boys who will take
A lifetime to know each other