Sex and Murder Magazine

By Derek Richards

some august afternoons are so hot
they scald your thoughts
slow your reactions
to the speed of mud
trickle through your sleep
with terrible clarity

mbta station deep in the bowels of boston
a summer couple in matching shorts
t-shirts and smiles
think they can hand a homeless man
two wrinkled dollars
then walk away with pride

when you hand a defenseless man money
in a tank of hungry sharks
they tear apart their prey

and that's what happened
as i stood there too slow with my knife

what may have already been a corpse
got tossed bloody-blue
onto the rails of the green line

the train was on schedule
they usually are
the grind of steel and bone

this is what trickles through my sleep
two wrinkled dollars
a moment of thoughtless charity

the devil lies
in wait for us to make the wrong move
say the wrong words
then torments us repeatedly

hopefully tomorrow afternoon
won't be
so damn hot