The Taste of Vice

by fabian cortez

As fists fly hard

& fast, so fast I can

Barely see them move

I ask myself should

I get involved

In this?

-

Any excuse would

See me back inside

I’ve hidden from

That loneliness

For so fucking long

-

Isolation like that

Can drive a man mad

Thought I’d go mad

A while back

Yet somehow

I kept it straight

-

They’re kicking him now

Everything in my gut

Wants me to stop this

Yet fear of iron rods

Smashing into

My skull

-

Don’t stop me,

That shit never did

Just going back to that

Fucking emptiness &

Silence, deafening

Eating away at me, too

Much time to think

Making me crack,

-

I feel like a coward

Maybe I am now?

-

When I finally see

One of his teeth

Fly into the air

With gouts of

Blood colouring

The already

Fucked up rain

I act

-

Brutal, uncompromising

As they were, they don’t

Know what’s hit them

As my fist impacts

Their bones, to break

& splinter

-

I got no conscience

To it, this kid’s

Gonna need a hospital

For a good long while

Their gonna need a

Morgue

-

Then I see who it is,

Fuck if it aint the

Thirteen year old

Mouthy little brat, who

Jeers at passers by

All the time,

Guess he messed

With the wrong

Crowd this time

-

In the assault it

Seems he bit out his

Own tongue

I laugh a moment

& pick it up;

I tell him

-

“Think I’ll hang

On to this a while”

So I don’t forget

Why I saved your ass

& finish what they

Started, don’t tell

Anyone will ya”

-

My lungs crave a

Cigarette so bad I could

Kill for one, a time back

I would have too, though I’m

All out, the doc told

Me I should quit or I’d

Have no lungs left

To breathe; I wheezed out

A friendly “Fuck You”

& left

-

If I’m gonna die

Soon, what difference

Does it make? as I walk

Away I turn to the kid

And bum a smoke

He tosses it over

With his still good arm

-

Damn that tastes good,

But then again most

Vices do

copyright©2005 fabian cortez