Timothy Gager

Disowned by most of The Family

 

You can’t buy your father’s car
my uncle told me a few weeks later
‘cause when you drive it around
I’ll think of him—
N-O!
So, I stole the keys,
went for a joyride...
ended up drunk in a ditch,
a turtle on it’s back.

 

A small Toyota uproar
for all the rest of them
that would still speak to me
leaving me in a cell
rotting for the night:
they gave me some,
     -Whatthefuckwereyouthinking.
     -No lessons learned from bailing you out,
and some more of,
     -don’t be like he was,

 

My uncle, more upbeat
celebrated a few less things that
reminded him of his "asswipe brother",
patted me on the back, said
You can buy the car now...

 

 

Timothy Gager is the author of Short Street and Twenty-Six Pack, both collections of short fiction, and the e-book The Damned Middle. His first book of poetry, The Same Corner of the Bar, is available through Ibbetson Street Press, and his most recent, We Needed A Night Out, was released in 2006. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month and is the co-founder of the Somerville News Writers Festival.

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