When he was fourteen, at the basement hardcore show where his top front tooth got almost knocked out and wiggly—which he thought was maybe already kind of loose from earlier when he was ten and got launched off the pegs of his friend’s BMX bike into the fire hydrant, the friend he’d been jealous of since he was five and the friend got rollerblades but he got roller skates which were slower and he loved to go fast fast fast, which is maybe why, after he got the roller skates, he joined the Air Force even though he was anti-everything but man those planes go fast, and maybe it’s why, after he got discharged, long after he stopped celebrating birthdays with the intention of celebrating every day, he needed the rental car speedometer to keep climbing, 110, 130, 150, cop lights flashing in the rear view, habitually sliding his tongue over his gums where that tooth had finally fallen out on prom night—he told himself, don’t ever forget this moment, don’t ever let the system grind you down, don’t ever take your finger off the pulse of this big sad glorious world.
🦷❤️🔥
“POV you're about to get KO'd with a broken bottle outside a Waffle House at 2:40 a.m.” (2021) Crayola on paper, by Alice M. Used with permission of the artist.
