Bad Hombre Poem by Laurence Overmire

Jimmy was being pulled
By a hormone
Through his turbulent adolescence.
The hormone’s name was “Bob.”
Bob was a bad hombre.
He picked fights with little pimple-faced kids
And then forced Jimmy to do all the dirty work
Throwing punches and getting kicked in the eye and so forth.
And Bob used to whisper nasty things in Jimmy’s ear
About bras and garters and quivering thighs
Jimmy got so excited
He hung out at the pool hall, drank beer and punched holes
In the cigarette machine.
And the worst thing Bob did was tell Jimmy
That he was a man.
And Jimmy spent the rest of his misguided life
Trying to prove it.


(Previously published in Pigs 'n Poets, Feb-May 2000)