BUCKEYE

It ended with a buckeye
A gift from me to him
3,000 miles from home
Token of new friendship
An innocent bauble
Home grown
On my Sister’s fertile tree
Ohio magic bean
Sacred symbol of good fortune
Salt Lake City poison
I did not see it coming
Stealth blindside
The often fatal kind
Butt naked
Spread eagle
Vicious decimation
So incredibly brutal
Can be the corporate world
Mental disembowelment
Atom splitting pain between my eyes
Involuntarily crossed
In cranial malaise
Stomach ulcers three
Volcanic eruption
In my bleeding belly
Hopes and dreams lay crumpled
On the VP’s killing floor
Stunned beyond a sentence
Bewildered
Vulnerable
Stinging tears of anger
Shock
Sheer disbelief
Searing shame of failure
What would I tell my precious children?
Unemployment Blitzkrieg
Career assassination
A broken hollow man
Hell
I was still learning the Utah Freeways
The ride home was incoherent
I think I drove to Provo
Before I knew what hit me
For what it’s worth
A moral
Cold hard lesson learned
Tis wise to refrain
From offering a Buckeye
To a Utah “Utes” fan
On the Wasatch Mountain Range

© Bill Grimes Jr. 2011