What would you do on a dare
Cross the street blindfolded
Trusting in hearing low traffic
Electric hybrids make barely a sound
If their tires are properly filled
When you were a kid walking
With your mom did she let you
Get up on the concrete retaining
Wall on someone’s front lawn
A foot high six inches across
The mix of danger bravado
Lured you to the edge
You clambered up
Did she insist you hold her hand
Did you pull back
This is mine watch me do it
So much was decided
In that test of wills
If your mom let you tent for the night
In the back yard at your friend’s house
Even if she was afraid
Of rats near the garage
Or did she send your big brother
To drag you home under threat
To meet with your father
Who’d have none of that crap
About you and your freedom
To choose where to sleep
Years went on some Kennedy
Would have people walk fifty miles
For their health to rebuild
A nation grown fat
Loathe to take on a challenge
Life had pictures of people
In tennies fat slacks hiking
Groups of church ladies college kids
While beer-bellied men
With a brew in their hands
Chuckled and hassled them
As they walked by still no one
Around you took up the baton
Though you’d asked everyone
High school girls had so many better
Things to do with summer closing soon
The guys who ran track boxed for fun
Said this stuff is for jerks they could do it
Any day we've got to work
You figured if you walked
Round the block eight hundred
Times you'd make fifty miles which
Would be mammothly boring
Dizzying besides those old men
With beers in the bar at the corner
Would come out laugh their asses
Off each time you’d go by
It would be good if you needed
To go to the bathroom stop for lunch
Where was the adventure in
Not even crossing the street
By now your father who dared sympathize
With your wish woke you up
For an early start drove you
Fifteen blocks closer to pick up a guy who
Rode with him to work he left you
On a corner overlooking the valley
Your goal was the airport and back
Sun barely up who knew what your
Mother thought of the deal
Well you did it got back
Home at suppertime
They were all at the table
You washed up took your place
It was chicken I think when your face
Crashed onto your plate
Your ass slid off the chair
Your big brother now
Two years in college
Dragged you to the couch
They woke you up with
Smelling salts you ate later
After you rested the neighbor girl
Who was three years older came over
In her black short shorts her
Loosely buttoned white blouse
Had nice boobs creamy legs
It was worth it
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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