I See It In Us :: published in Contraposition

Listen :: H2O :: I See It In Us

I See It In Us

There!
 There!
 Dave yells.
 Hughes’s Cavalier jolts : stops : 
 third space from the entrance. 
 Rock star parking!

The glass door obscured
 by smudged handprints
 closes behind us. Fluorescent
 lights : Christmas decorations : shouting voices
 that never form words
 engulf us
 cut off
 the winter night.

The food court packed :
 teenagers eat slices of greasy pizza
 children throw Happy Meal toys
 mothers stare
 with bags of merchandise
 to exchange resting between their legs 
 eyes focus : shift to stares : as we walk by.

band T-shirts : 
 hoodies : skateboards : studded 
 belts : mohwaks : liberty spikes
 meet up outside the Gallery of Sound. 
 Old women scurry
 JC Penney to the Hallmark store,
 tired men recline on benches,
 their gaze
 always on our group.
 Hot Tony from Hot Topic is on break
 Art and Sean mooch money
 underage punks bum rides to Metro
 Dave skates through the crew.

We gawk back, 
 at their wrinkles and grey hair, 
 their high-water pants and orthopedic shoes.

One old man has an inky
 blob sticking out 
 of his shirt sleeve.
 I stare into his eyes
 he stares back
 What does he see in us?
 His high school days :
 a pack of cigarettes 
 rolled up in a white T-shirt sleeve
 as he ditched last period 
 to smoke under the bleachers?
 His wife slams her shopping bags
 against his legs : looks to what
 he stares at. 
 
 Does she see
 the fuck-authority boys
 her mother never let her date?
 Does she see
 the girl she always 
 was too afraid to be?