- George was a doll chased by a gang of kids with baseball bats
through little league fields.
2. He was someone you’d fake friend, more stuffing than boy.
3. He’d be your puppet, your mannequin, and your funhouse mirror.
4. He’d become the you that you knew, the you that you told him to.
5. George would take you to the abandoned railroad tracks to meet his friends,
the ones who found old fuel containers and lit them on fire.
6. That place doesn’t exist.
7. George lived at the bodega, playing the original Mortal Kombat.
8. When George lost video games he’d smash his fists against the monitor
until he was asked by the owner to leave.
9. He was a doll, a skinny stick figure, those knockoff Doritos that would stain
your tongue orange.
10. George was useful for his complicity in acts of vandalism.
11. He was a doll, the kind you’d bury in your closet until you needed him again.
-- Micah Zevin
Comments