Untitled-1-finalLittle child,
my name is April,
I have a dog named Pinky,
we live in happy squalor,
my seven brothers and I.

What’s that man saying,
over there by the burning car.
Let me in the El Dubo Restaurant,
for some water to ease the pain
of my living coil.

Little child,
Pinky is peeing on our
new porch. There is a flea
on that dog that will
come in and self-reproduce
until we will have to
just burn the place down.

Park the car outside
in the street,
and you might as well just
leave the keys in it.
This town will eat us both alive.

We’re mixing gasoline and pesticide
in a 50/50 combo. Light the back yard
on fire and pretend it’s a cookout.

Little child,
my name is April.
I will be seven next year,
and I will go to a new school.
The people who lived here
before you
were nice and Chinese.

[+]

“Meet the Neighborhood,” Mississippi Review Web Edition 4:6 (June 1998).

About the Author

Bob Hate

Bob was a rock and roll musician who had a failed career playing in clubs in and around Dallas, Texas. He was born in Bossier City, Louisiana in 1958, but then disappeared and was rumored dead in 1999 and later in 2014.

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