UNTITLED

There was this man
who had the tips of his
fingers disfigured on the
ends of them
they were strange balls
of scar tissue with the most
mishapen brown specs of
finger nail growth
They worked good for him
when handling his fishing pole
and he was more than
proficient at catching
catfish
below winganon bridge
my drunken dad once
told me on our swivering
back road drive home
from the lake
to ramona that the man
had been tortued by means
of having bamboo splinters
shoved up under his fingernails
I figured that the war
was still going on for him
but now
battling those
spiny barbed fish
had taken the place of
the VC and their punji sticks