i was tom sawyer in a musical
one of the drama professors had written
based on huck finn
and in the scene where we prick our fingers
with a knife and write our names
in blood
something happened at a matinee
we did at the veterans
hospital on a tiny stage all of us crowded together
none of it making much sense as
we bumped into
one another entering and leaving from stage right only
because stage left was just a fire
exit that would set off the alarm if you opened it
so i whipped out
my knife which so frightened one of the paras
on the front row that he
started screaming and yelling and racing his
wheelchair this way and that until
the orderlies finally got him cornered and put the jacket on
and dragged him away far off somewhere
in another wing
which was his favorite place they told me later
and he would use just about any excuse
to get there because
of the view of the courtyard below
where the aides liked to go on their breaks
and he had these pentax binoculars
that got him in real close especially to this one woman
from the mail room who he said
was the ghost
of a pregnant korean girl that he
had stuck in the belly and killed her and the child both
with a k bar he got off a marine only
when they would show him
a k bar and ask like this like this one here
he would say no it
was longer like the one jim bowie carried in that movie
john wayne made about the alamo
which was not accurate on a lot of things but they got that right
you don't bleeve me you can go ast her
