Windward Review Volume 19 (2021): Empathy and Entropy

“Your daddy and your momma want you in school
this fall.”
I moved up the step ladder to reach the trim below the green shingles.
“I’ve had about all the school shit I can stand.”
He nodded,
kept the white rising up the wall
with the long-handled roller
not acknowledging my manly remark.
Easing down the ladder,
a drop of paint fell on the hair on my shoulders
and bled through to my Bad Company tee shirt.
“Damn it to Hell,” I swore, manly once again.
He lay his roller in the tray,
and said, “Let’s grab a cold drink.”
Zipping the coveralls down, he grabbed another Lucky,
before popping the top on a couple of Cokes.
Handing me one, he blew smoke into Oklahoma sky.
I took a long draft and watched the smoke disappear.
He opened his left hand wide.
“Look at them fingers, boy.
I beat every one of ‘em flat with a goddamn hammer over the years.
You think that was my game plan?”
I looked at the literally flattened fingertips
and swallowed another pull of cold Coke.
“I was gonna ride rodeo,
saddle broncs in Calgary and Cheyenne.
I wasn’t gonna be doing this piddling shit my whole life.
It would just pay my entry fees.”
I didn’t know what to say, just sorta mumbled something about wanting to
play ball.
“Ball players and bronc riders get old, son.
If you don’t get in school pretty soon, you never will.
You’ll look up one day, and you’ll be sixty-eight,
still hammering nails and painting boards,”
he threw another butt on the ground,
“smoking these death sticks
and driving a piece-of-shit Chevy.”
“ I sure don’t plan on doing this forever, Sioux,” I said.
He coughed and spat phlegm.
“Me either.
Turpentine’ll take the paint outta your hair,
but that shirt not coming clean.”
I glanced at the green stain.
“Lotta pretty girls in college,” he grinned.
Get back on the ladder.
We’ve got two more walls to go.”
43
Empathy / Entropy