did it leave a mark?

ray hardy had old baseball cards
we'd line up on a pool table in his basement
and shoot with a pump bb gun

the era of reagan,
rambo and the terminator

and bb guns were
the closest we could get
to actual cinematic violence

one time when it was my turn to fire
i pumped that mother the full ten pumps

the max it could go

i fired it right off
while ray was still setting us up
a field of cards

the bb got him in the ass

and as ray danced around his basement
screaming and crying

pulling his pants down
to show off his big, red welt

i stood there
with the gun at my side

like a clueless john wayne
on a vast wyoming range

just hoping that his fucking mom
wouldn't come on downstairs

and make us play
one of those stupid board games

again.