Day 6 - 2.1.13

Prompt for: February 1, 2013Subject or Theme: Lifeblood (assets or defects of family - pick ONE member to write about) Word(s) to Include: volume(s) Forbidden Word(s): (none) Additional Parameters: Tell me about the relationship between you and your chosen family member. This is a personal experience poem. Minimum 20 lines



Uncle Hump

Always the belle of the ball
in his garish yellow jacket
hiding venomous stings.
Thinning hair swiped slick
across a head more bald than not;
used car salesman smile plastered
across a face that hid more
than faulty brakes.
The soul of innocence,
adept at playing caricatures,
designed to mask,
to fool, those without sight to see
fear in ten year old eyes.
Soft, pudgy hands, sausage fingers
adorned with sharp-edged gold rings
winking diamonds,
wandering fingers tipped with talon-ed pinchers—
a scorpion always hiding behind facades.

He smelled of onions and three-day-old fish
that not even volumes of Aqua Velva could disguise.
One Christmas he gave me a red lace bra and panties—
I was ten and uninterested;
I was told to say words of thanks.
I lied.
I heard kids at school talking about humping.
I wondered if they knew my uncle,
but I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know.

He followed me into the barn,
wanted to see my horse.
Of course he did.
I was armed this time
with my riding crop, flailing.
Red stripe welt across his face.
He left without saying goodbye to anyone.
Icy roads, a sharp curve;
they said he never had a chance.
No seat-belts in 1964.
Shattered glass
hid questions
I would never need to answer.
People thought me an unnatural child
when I was smiling at his funeral.



52 lines