The last time they visited him
in the hospital,
mother made the big
announcement

She was once more
pregnant

at 44

Hoping for a second son
of course

Because the first son
aged 21
was such a failure, of course

He will never become
anything worthwhile
Not from this hospital bed
with a broken hip
and spine

It wouldn’t have happened
if his dream
wasn’t to make it big
in the gang

But his dream was to
make it big in the 
local street gang
Serving the cocaine goddess and
hustling his way to the top

Well it was all fine
until that one deal that
went horribly wrong

People die when they stop
dreaming

Now he dreamed to just
die already

Surely his brother will choose
a better dream. He
had to

I liked her dad
He was an interesting guy

preached all day
long
about smartphone
addiction
while his daughter was on her
smartphone, ignoring
him

“A human life,” he was saying.
“Controlled by a piece
of plastic
with lights. A destiny
completely determined by
a machine
designed by corporations to become
god, to claim souls. How
blind, how utterly and
impossibly blind a whole generation
of human beings can be. To
willingly subject
themselves to slavery like
that. Their thumbs
and fingers always tap-tap-tapping
that screen
as if trying to break
their soul free from beyond. But
it never happens. You cannot
break a door
by merely knocking on it...”

“Whatever, dude,” said his daughter
with the phone before
her face

He shook his head and
then looked at me. This time
I too was looking
at my phone.
“I see she has corrupted you too,”
he said. “Shame. I was hoping
it could be
the other way around
just for once.”

I let the phone
down. “Me? Oh no, I was just
checking my e-mail. I've
sent some poems to
a bunch of publishers and
was hoping to
see a reply or something.”

“Hm, and is there any
reply?” he asked

“No,” I said

He nodded. “How about
a beer?”

“Sure. Thanks.”

quite a few times she had to ask
him why he was
so shy

He thought it was just
normal to be
shy on a first date
no matter how many other dates you've
been on with other girls

He was afraid of getting
too deep into
relationships, mainly because girls didn't
like guys who still lived
with their parents

He lived with his
father
who worked as a butcher
His clothes were always stained by blood
and smelled of salt and iron
but worst of all
was that he
was drunk more often than not

About thirty minutes into
the date his phone
rang and he excused himself to
answer. It was his father

"Listen buddy. I kinda need your
help."

"Dad, I kinda need you to understand that
I can't save your ass every time
you get in trouble thanks
to your drinking. I'm busy
right now."

"Oh? Too busy to help
your old man?"

"Bye."

"No, no, no, wait! Listen. It's just
a simple thing this time. You just have to
tell the police that your
father is a butcher and that the
eyeball they found in his rectum belongs to
a pig and not a human being, okay?"

"Dad, what the fuck?"

"Please!"

He hung up
walked back to the table
sat down
smiled

"Problems?" his date asked.

"No, no. My father asked for
a ride. I told him I can't right now. It's
okay though. Nothing urgent or
important."

"Father, huh? Must be nice having one."

"Oh, you don't…?"

She smiled. "Nevermind that. But anyway,
speaking of fathers, you think you'll
be a good one?"

"Huh?"

"Cuz I surely won't be the best
mother. See, I just found out days ago
that my ex-boyfriend got me
pregnant. You think
you'll be a good daddy?"

"Um… I think my dad's calling
again…"

but unfortunately they aren't
real

You spend a whole childhood
not wanting ghosts
to be real
only to one day
reach adulthood and
wander from empty room to empty
room hoping
foolishly that the
wife that cancer took away
would whisper something to you

anything