My Brother

My little brother was always
up to no good.
Not in any malicious way,
but his brand of jack-assery
always seemed to draw
unwanted attention.
When he was 8/9/10
and I was 11/12/13
I remember he got beat up
by a girl.
I was tooling around
on my bmx bike,
and he was marching
back and forth on the sidewalk,
but he left his right shoe untied,
so when he would step 
he would kick it high in the air,
and when it landed,
he would scoop it with his foot,
and do it all over again.
So my brother was doing
his act with the shoe,
but one time he really let it fly,
and through some unlucky twist
of the universe (that always seemed
to happen to my brother) 
the neighbor girl came around the corner.
Her name was Mattie, 
but we called her Mad Mattie, 
or Mattie the destroyer. 
She was as wide as she was tall. 
Her face was scrunched up like a bulldog. 
She took no lip. 
Anyway, my brother kicked his
shoe way up in the air, 
and when it landed 
it was on Mad Mattie's head. 
You can imagine the horror 
on my brother's face 
(there was probably a similar look on my face. 
Fear by proxy?).
Mad Mattie snorted, 
and stomped her foot like a bull,
my brother tried to run, 
but was too slow. 
Mattie the Destroyer was on him in seconds. 
It wasn't pretty. 
After a linebacker type take down
she was pummeling him 
about his head with his own shoe. 
I can still hear him screaming. 
I had lost my own fear 
and was overcome with the 
sheer comedy of the scene. 
I laughed so hard I cried. 
I'm sure I might have considered 
breaking it up, 
but underneath all that scary rage 
and blubber Mad Mattie was a girl, 
and I wasn't sure what the protocol was. 
Eventually my brother broke free 
and ran up the steps, 
through the front door, 
and into the safety of our house. 
Mattie dropped the shoe, snorted, 
and went off to get a snack, 
or kill squirrels, or both. 
I quit laughing as she passed bye. 
Even her shadow was a bit intimidating. 
I could use the getting beat up by a girl story
for black mail, 
if my brother didn't want it getting out 
he would have to do as I said. 
In 7/6/5 years my brother would be dead. 
Life taken by his own hand. 
I didn't know that then. 
Though I've often wondered, 
that if I had, 
what would I had done different?

Reviews

[Bonnie Masters]

Brilliant poem, flowed all the way, great narrative, extremely sad.

[Kiara]

This was really good, and I'm sorry about your brother....

[Chris]

For the poem... good flow and content... good pace.
For the thoughts ...dealing is something we have to do as we can. And the high road isn't always more than a molehill above the flood...

The ending revelation was perhaps what this whole piece was about... to me.

[April Child]

Wonderful. I was charmed by the story and then that ending... sad, poignant. Well done, perhaps a few superfluous words but all in all a very entertaining and touching piece.

[heather]

Amazing.

[Marie]

This is a great story. You described everything so well.

[Brandon S. Whitten]

Wow! My condolences. All I can say is you are a superb story teller through poetry. Damn you're good!