My Shadow on a Rainy Day
Peter Mladinic
My Shadow on a Rainy Day
I like the sound
of the late wrestler Antonino Rocca’s name.
Cornflakes pleases my ear.
I like the smell of gasoline, the touch of leather,
but I don’t like the thought of animals killed for leather.
I like the sound of “bulletproof,”
though I’m glad I’ve never worn a bulletproof vest.
I hope bulletproof glass is never my world,
that things don’t get so bad we always have to sit behind
bulletproof glass or wear bulletproof vests.
Papers blowing out of pick-ups on the highway annoy me,
so do poachers killing elephants for ivory.
I’ve never met a poacher, though I know some hunters.
I don’t understand the thrill. I’m open,
but don’t think I could shoot a deer.
For survival, yes, but I doubt I’ll have to.
I’m more likely to see a dead coyote on the highway.
I’m troubled by people who leave caps off pens
or fail to turn off bathroom lights.
I like being in safe places: the bulletproof cathedral,
mall or school. Modern courthouses
are bulletproof. I like the sound, not the idea.
I like the idea of being at home,
want others to feel at home with me.
I bore people. Before a television
flanked by a plastic palm, Art said to me, “You’re boring!”
Worse things have happened.
But to slit a dog’s throat,
to shoot an elephant for its tusks?
Ok, at times I’m an SOB.
I couldn’t get along with myself,
Emile Griffith said in Ring of Fire.
He killed another boxer, Benny Paret.
Accidents happen in and out of the ring.
I like the pack of unfiltered Camels,
how it looks, and how a fresh pack feels in my hand.
My finger pulled a trigger, I killed an injured dog.
When someone says Murphy was shot in a bar at 3 AM,
I ask, “What was Murphy doing in a bar at 3 AM?”
Leon
Henry wanted to take Leon camping.
Leon, who lives in a halfway house,
a sixteen year old
whom Henry had taken charge of.
I didn’t want Leon to go.
It was okay that first time,
but a second might lead to a third
and a fourth. I phoned Henry.
Peter Mladinic has published three books of poems: Lost in Lea, Dressed for Winter, and Falling Awake in Lovington, all with the Lea County Museum Press. He lives in Hobbs, New Mexico.