WILLIE AND THE ZIP GUN

story poem

WILLIE AND THE ZIP GUN

in high school they sorted us out
by grades
sophomore, junior, senior
and by gpa...
but in gym class we were all mixed together
and that’s how i became friends with betta townsend...
betta was a very large black girl
whose family ran a small hog farm,
she was such fun to be around, she had a wonderful sense of humor,
she could turn everything into laughter
and we loved her for it...
she had a brother,willie,
who was in the same second year spanish class i was
betta and i were younger than willie and he was considered a ""tough""
but betta knew him better,
she even made a joke
about her brother willie
and the zip gun he made in metal shop
he was so proud of the thing
he strutted the halls showing it off to all the guys
when the teachers weren’t looking
and
if a teacher came in view he would stuff it in his hip pocket,
the one located on the butt of his jeans
and
with it hidden under his jacket
he would strutt away to the next group of guys
betta said his big mistake was forgetting the size of his butt,
and his sway back,
the last time he hustled to hide the zip gun in his back pocket he was in a bit of a hurry
and slammed it in a bit to quickly
and it went off
with a loud pop
blowing a hole straight down
and clean through his left butt cheek
and betta said he was just so of full of “s**t”
he thought he needed 3 “a*s holes” instead of 1...
i just remember it was a very long time before he could sit comfortably on the left side of his rump
in mrs. zender’s spanish class during our junior year...
betta and i still get together
for laughs a couple times a year
but willie
he’s not around anymore
he died in a flash fire attack
trying to get some kids to cover
somewhere in viet nam in 1969
and it wasn’t a zip gun
it was a sniper’s rifle that tore his head away
and no matter how we looked at it there was never any humor there,
just death and the horrible waste of war...

"

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this is a really terrific story...as Marie said, humor early on, but real life caught up to Willie...he did a brave thing and paid dearly for it...

and there is no humor in war...just death which is a horrible waste.

this is so well done.

[Marie]

Well, it started out to be funny, and Willie seemed like just another punk. But he certainly wasn't a punk, and there is certainly nothing funny about war.