Issue 22 - 1992

Last Night
Scott Rettberg
Coe Review • Issue 22
Three months earlier at the home
Which in spite of its ice cream parlor
Checker boards and floral prints had
The clinical aura of an ugly shit house
Factory of death
Uncle Dave teased him, to goad him
Back into the use of his legs
But he said that they had carried him
For seventy-seven years that
Now they were useless
Uncle Dave prodded memories of boyhood
Great Depression errands done for
Stale loaves of bread, swept floors,
Stolen beers and dances with young girls
Clumsy but alive, the brothers laughed at
Nearly forgotten tricks played on each other
And the neighbor's cat
That afternoon I fed him watermelon
He couldn't take down the solids but the
Juice was sweet as he swallowed
He had finally made it back
To his own bedroom where he was in reach
Of all his books and gadgets and
The woman down the hall
Didn't scream all night
Pain was slowly fading,
Chapter coming to a close and although
He was diapers he could still
Reason and hold out his hand
To firmly grasp mine he told me
Not to make the same
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