Grievances
the bottle rockets
landed on the neighbor’s roof
over and over
that summer.
It was the summer the Pearson Girls
still climbed trees
and the men
who worked with our father
gathered in the backyard
on Saturdays
to throw horseshoes
and drink beer
talk about the Union
and Management
and who was filing a grievance
and every Saturday as if on cue
the neighbor would come out
on his porch
pitch ringers
about the drinking
and the foul language
and the goddamn bottle rockets
that landed on his roof like memories
of a summer long ago
Horror Sleaze Trash 