chicken bones

Billy Marshall
                          had a name
right out of the Wild West
and a devil’s grin fat freckles
and messy hair

                            fat lips and
black eyes bloomed from his
dirty fists

                        we dug up a
garbage bag filled with bones
small animal bones a chicken
or a cat why bury an animal
in a garbage bag?

Billy Marshall
                         had nothing
to do with it but it felt like
his kind of menace

                                   it felt like
a bad secret like the PCP and
greasepaint scene from the
Mod Squad

                       the fear of high
school
                falling from the roof

the one who haunts your dreams
doesn’t know you exist