Learning My Lesson

When I was five I found
Beauty-- a girl on a box
Of soap-- while fooling in
An alley with my brother
Who was all gum and
Better looks. He snatched
The box, gazed, and
Better looks, gazed, and
Looked back at me, kid
Like a broken-down fence
-- said he knew her house
And took me down our alley
To the street Mother said never
To cross. "Over there,"
He pointed, "that house."
I worried my brow into lines:
stacked boards, oily field
Of truck parts, a waeehouse
slamming shut with
Machinery. "No sir,"
I said, being no one's fool,
And ran ayay to play
Only to return, look both ways,
And croos the street
I looked back. A river
Of glass and bottle
Caps gleaned on the asphalt.
The parked cars seemed dar,
Even Rick who was jumping
In delight, siinging I was a dead boy
On the flooe when Momma found out.
"You're stupid too," I said,
Turned and walkd until
I was lost and talking
To a dog. And how did I
Get back? How did any of us
Get back when we searched
For beauty? I don't know,
Except days later
Our neihbor's cat crossed
That same street and came home
With a sliver,long as an evil finger,
Poking from its eye.
Poor orange cat, it couldn't tear,
Blink, or close its eye in sleep,
Even in death.

Gary Soto