POEM - SK8 Jerk

This story has been bugging me

Skating through my mind

A story about farm Grandma and Grandpa

The ones from St. George

I gave them that name

Their place seemed like a farm

It was really just a big garden

But they had fat, dark purple concord grapes

That grew on the back fence

And trees with fruit on them

A pantry or two full of canned foods

Amidst red dirt hills

Covered in scraggly blond grass

With the smell of burning hay

Permanently present in the air

On this visit I was a skater kid

I wanted to be the BMX kid

They had a dirt course up the hill

It would have gotten me out of the house

But I had my old skateboard

Riding on the rough asphalt

Not a curb or drainage ditch in sight

And it wasn’t fun anymore

I was a teenager

Perfecting the art of boredom

Then I broke my board

Pulling a massive 360 Boneless one

Snapped the thing right in half

I went to complain to my parents

Grandpa saw it and got all helpful

I hadn’t spent a lot of time with him

He didn’t talk much

More mumbled and yelled

He said he could make a skateboard

I immediately said it was not necessary

But he insisted

Maybe he was bored too

Maybe he was trying to get to know me

Either way I was dubious of the outcome

I was pretty sure his wood pile

Was not going to have 9 ply epoxy laminated maple

With two fiberglass infused cores

I was right, and I felt bad

He was so determined to help

What he had was plywood

So we cut out a shape

Drilled holes to mount the trucks

Painted it white

Let it dry as long as I could

With dread I tightened down the wheels

To the still tacky board

With an eagerly watching audience

I set off and felt the ridiculous flex

The imprecise alignment

The complete lack of concave

And the absence of grip tape

Then I waited for everyone to leave

Road out across the street

Did another boneless one

Made sure I landed in the middle of the board

And bifurcated the sad excuse

I showed my dad with a knowing look

He wasn’t as supportive as I’d hoped

So I hid the wreckage in the car

In the process crowning my progression

From nice little kid

To jerk face teenager