If you swim before the children wake
take me along. Though it is you, Folly Beach
lifer, and me
...
[+]
i've never fixed a flat tire before
i told everyone i knew how to
i told a girl who was the most
beautiful girl i'd seen in the last 5 minutes
that i knew how to fix a flat
and i told her this story
of snakes and bandits—
i was into westerns at the time—
about how i lifted the car with one arm
and slid in the jack
and then i made up a bunch of steps
and kissed her hard when i realized
she was getting impatient
my dad kept asking me if i knew
how to fix a flat
and i'd puff up big and tell him
he'd have to try harder to be
a better father and i would
scream till i popped a hole
in my left lung and i didn't know how
to fix that either
my mom would ask me kinder and softer
and i would tell her to leave it be and
that i knew what i was doing
and i felt that slow leak from
before make a noise i've never heard
i don't know how to fix a flat tire
and this fucking deer is staring me down—
the live one across the road and the dead
one picked clean right next to me—
and i tell them both
that i got it i fucking got it alright
they blink both of them
and offer me a hoof
and we share a handrolled corn cig—
they're delicious—
and the dead one lends me
femurs and a vertebrae
i make a tire iron from them
while the live one eats my rubber
i squat down andacting as my own jack
and it's not half bad
with the weight square on the egg in my back
that i've never been able to crack
they ask me why i never learned
i tell them the truth
they ask if there is someone i can call
that we did a pretty shit job and i would
need help in a couple of miles
i tell them to fuck off and dial
my dad picks up and he starts asking questions
and i stop answering and i hear that familiar sputter
only it's on the right side too now
i hang up
i check me and the deers' lousy work
and everything looks fine except—
no—
the spare's flat
live one chewed right through it cheeky bastard
i text that girl and tell her i lied
about the tires about everything
she asks who i am
i call my mom and i just start crying
but all that comes out
is a slow hiss and a bumpy road