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{men of steel} john dorsey a few years before he died my grandfather had one of his legs chopped off he referred to diabetes as that slow death with a killer smile i'm told he hadn't been able to fuck for at least a decade if only viagra had made its way into the suburbs back then he might have given wilt chamberlain a run for his money i remember how we'd sit in his attic watching old reel to reel stag loops of carmen miranda he never believed in comic books or fairy tale endings he said "back then we were all men of steel" talking about his days in the boiler rooms of braddock, pa and how he been a high school basketball star forced to drop out and trade in his sneakers for steel toed work boots to support his family my grandmother a raven haired carhop beauty jailbait in any era i remember how she ran around with the owner of the local pool hall when i was a kid i guess at that point she just needed the dick he told me to call him "uncle bill" and let me play the skee-ball machine until i fell asleep in the corner of the room around the same time my uncles got drunk and taunted the tornado that threatened to wipe out my parent's mobile home in the spring of 83' i remember thinking what does god have against trailer parks? my grandmother and i haven't spoken in yrs her living with a 80 yr retired grifter named walter who could take jim thompson for his last borrowed nickel & me thinking about my grandfather laughing and teaching my cousins how to play hopscotch on one leg hell, he could even dream on one leg he always said it was more than enough to get the job done |
