_______________for Walter
that summer my mother moved in with her boyfriend
and my father moved in with his mistress
we were pretty much left to fend for ourselves
oh, it wasn't like we were starving or anything
dad would show up to check on us about twice a week
arrive with an armful of groceries and leave them on the counter
they obviously paid the bills because we had running water and AC
left on our own we banged around that big empty house
hours of television, trips to the 7-11 store for doughnuts
and the funny part is that it wasn't too horrible
and we bore no grudge against them
it was just something I guess they had to do at the time
so we made our way through that hot Texas summer
walking down to City Park for a swim
reading comics and playing board games
but the nights could get pretty bad:
I remember crying myself to sleep more than once
and that's when you would come to my room
"Frankie," you'd whisper harshly, "you have to be strong."
and you told me that story you learned in history class
those vikings who would make a sword, break it, make it again
in order to make it strong, to make it powerful
make it, break it, back in the fire, make it again
the process of creating the best possible steel
You would say: "That's us, Frankie, don't you get it?
This will make us stronger, just like those broken swords.
We'll take this summer with us the rest of our lives."
and we did.
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