Just Another Day
By Kenneth R. Cabrieto
We were running so fast that he lost control and slipped.
His face, an elbow and a knee met with the concrete,
I knew these would become scabs he'd pick at the next time he was bored in class.
"Get yo ass out of here quick!", He yelled out.
No more running, I thought to myself.
I lifted the back of my shirt up, reached under my belt and pulled out my butterfly knives.
Click, click, click
And they're out with the quickness.
This wasn't the time to be flashy.
Homeboy was still bleeding all over the place from when he got stuck earlier and then there was the fall.
I bit down on my top lip,
It was time to make them bleed too.
There were five of them circling us like vultures
But it wasn't food they were after - it was coin.
I already knew we couldn't let this box out of our sight under any circumstances.
It was time to pretend this was basketball and put up the D.
The problem was that I sucked at ball and homie could barely stand.
He still managed to make it to his feet.
At the push of a button his switchblade was out.
I need to get me one of those, I reminded myself.
Then I remembered that aside from the knife that stabbed my partner,
We still didn't know what these fools we packing.
Three more knives were pulled out along with a chain.
A chain's sorta old skoo I thought as I watched its owner spin it around.
I anticipated the attack but when I went to block it there was no connection.
I realized that this kid didn't even know what he was doing
As the blood rushed from him, down my arm and dripped onto the ground.
Click, click, click
Knife back under the belt - chain in hand.
I looked over at my partner and knew exactly what he was thinking -
River City Ransom, but we both knew this wasn't a game.
We quickly took care of our adversaries 'til only two were left standing.
Finally the odds were even.
Enemy A was weaponless and was rolling his sleeves up.
It looked like he was in this 'til the bitter end.
Enemy B still held his blade tightly although he was wounded.
I watched him as he tried to stop himself from shaking.
I don't know how we always get ourselves into these situations.
Well, nothing I can do about it now and I always finish what I start.
Partner was looking at me and I knew that was the signal.
Immediately he started throwing punches at Enemy A,
Almost right after, he fell over - unfortunately I'm not talking about Enemy A.
There wasn't any time to waste so I slung the chain around Enemy B's neck,
Pulled him towards me and when he was close enough - I held my knife out.
Luckily, mine went into him before his went into me.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked at 'A', we were the last men standing.
"Let's get this shit over with.", I said as I stared into his eyes.
Truth was I wasn't tired but I was hungry as shit.
'A' still didn't have a weapon, it had been a while since the last time -
So I decided to be honorable today.
Click, click, click.
Empty handed, I approached the guy who put my boy down.
Things got heavy quick, I must not have been paying attention cause 'A' wasn't weaponless.
He smacked the bottle he found on the ground against my head.
I rolled out of his reach and struggled to hold myself up.
Everyone always said I was hard headed but how hard could he have hit me?
I saw the bottle in his hand and it hadn't even shattered.
The next thing I knew a loud bang had sounded off and its echo crackled in the background.
I froze but my body unlocked when I saw that 'A' was the one to fall.
I looked behind me - the rest of the group was late as usual.
Half of them came to me, the other half to my boy.
They helped both of us up and to the cars.
A few hours later we laughed together as we counted our money.
-June 11th, 2004; August 4th-5th, 2004
