the old neighborhood

on the sidewalk
the season swelling
steel toes cracking
those flammable leaves
thin Colt's face like a crow

he laughed as his hand
caught at my throat
and in that second
I was breathless as oil

Grandpa
your hands thick with veins
have hung low and ready
at your sides
since the time another boy
knocked the cigarette from your mouth
and you whispered to him
"I been saving that one for three months"

I felt your eyes then
watching diamondback black
maybe from the grass grown over
the front yard
all golden ghosts
or from the quiet windows of the trailer
parked down the road

Grandpa
you steadied my eyes
as Colt's hand let go
and breath filled my lungs
again