she had those ridiculously
long and sharp
fake nails
that doubled the length
of each finger

Those on the right hand
were
painted silver
and those on the left
black

and she liked to
poke things with them

and one of those
things was
my side
every time we sat next
to each other

at times she’d poke hard
enough to hurt her
own finger
and then would give a mock
cry and say it was my fault
and then laugh about it

“Aren’t you gonna ask how
I wipe my ass with
these?” she said

“Nah. I figure too many people
did it already.”

“Many people? Whaaaat?
Who d’ you imagine I talk to?
I don’t interact
with many people. No people
actually.”

“What about your
family?”

“Family… Yeah, I still think about
turning on the gas
in the house
and leaving them to die. They never
open a window in that
house anyway. It would make it
easy.”
She poked a nail into the
side of her head a few
times. “Ah, why am I such a
coward?”
And then suddenly her eyes
lit up. “Say, how about
you help me a bit?”

“No thanks. I don’t feel like
murdering anybody.”

“Dummy! Who said anything
about murder?”

“I could’ve sworn it
was implied.”

“Was not! On the contrary!
You could actually save
some lives if you
help me.”

“Oh? And what do I gotta
do?”

“Easy! You come home
with me
an’ we tell ‘em you’re my
boyfriend of years and years
and I trust you with my life
and the life of my dear ones. You
have a car, right?
Well, you can use it to take
my grandma to
church. It’s been her dream to
go there one last time, you see?
But since she’s so old and
sick and can’t move
and has nobody to help her, well,
she suffered a great deal because of it.
Grandpa can’t even move
from his bed. He’s far
worse than her. But we have
unfinished business,
him and I. And I
fear he’ll depart from this
world before we can properly
settle our scores, you see?
So, if you could take grandma to church
where she’ll be for about three
hours and then bring her
back… Well, I’ll get to spend that time
alone with my grandpa and…”

“And what?”

“Let’s just say you’d save grandma’s
life. She’s mostly innocent. Mostly.
It’s the old bastard I wanna have
a private
talk with, not her. She can live for
a few more years.
So, um, we got a deal?”

“My car’s broken. I’m waiting to
get it fixed.”

Her nails
were quick to poke me in the
side again
“Liar! You don’t wanna do
a good deed for a
good soul in this ugly world!”

I’m not sure who
the good soul was
in her view
but I’m sure the world she
talked about wasn’t ugly

No, it was
just very interesting,
that’s all

we’re both blessed enough
to live in interesting
times

Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "blessed to live in interesting times"!

Check it out HERE!

Thank you!