bluegatereview

on the way to swimming practice after school
we hurried past the A-team
–ironically so named with most days spent on the bench-
hoping the aging scruffy-looking men would ignore us
sometimes they did
as kids we accepted theirs was a kind of life like many others unlike ours
sitting around all day a stone’s throw from the liquor store
loud and scornful against the averted world
what did their mothers dream for them when they were born
Kenneth, Crazy Lasse, Pekka
now swaying about with bottles, laughing joylessly
Koskenkorva down their throats like water

1990s