Halloween Cunt

Halloween Cunt

i was a kid
going around
in our rusted out
copper
ford pinto
on halloween

my father
was taking me around
our tiny
working class town
doing
the halloween thing

i think
i was a robot
that year
going into
a subdivision
like any other
in my tiny
hometown

i went up to a house
like any other
i'd been to that night
and rang the bell

a woman came
asking
who i was

i told her

she said
in smug disdain
"i don't know you and we're
only giving candy
to kids
from our neighborhood"

i went back to the car

my father asked
"what's wrong?"

on the verge of tears
and feeling worthless
not even worth
that bitch's 
5 cent 
piece of candy
i told my father
what had happened

my father
continued
driving me around
but he barely spoke

the next night
my father told me
how he knew the guy
that lived in that house
and where he worked

it was
a very small town
after all

my father said
he went to that guy's work
and told him
about the night before
and if he was in on it
he deserved
to get the shit
kicked out of him
and my father
was prepared to do it
then and there

as my father told it
the guy said
he didn't know
anything about it

so my father told him
whether or not
he was in on it
his wife
was a goddamned cunt
anyway

my father
had and has
many 
many faults
but
reflecting on it now
he was the fucking
champion of the world
for doing that
not only for me
but
for 
all of us