Underneath the Bleachers. by Steve Passey

No one has to say that 

it won’t always be like this.

Southern Comfort in 7-Up Slurpee’s, and 

having sex underneath the bleachers, 

waiting to be caught.

Maybe 

your old man will come with a baseball bat 

or swinging a Bible, 

or both, 

and run me off, but right now

everyone up above us is out of their seats, 

jumping for the sky.

They are going to break the boards and 

Fall right through and find us. 

These are the best things in life:

gifts given and thanks made and 

that’s all the praise I have to give and 

it’s all praise for you. 

If I dream now, 

I dream of being on the roof and 

the roof is on fire and 

I come back to underneath the bleachers and 

see now there is the borealis in the sky and 

I can fly, and I think that

we can do anything because 

who fears anything?

Steve Passey is originally from Southern Alberta. He is the author of the short-story collections "Forty-Five Minutes of Unstoppable Rock" (Tortoise Books, 2017), "Cemetery Blackbirds" (Secret History Books, 2019), and many other things. He is a Pushcart and best of the Net Nominee and is part of the Editorial Collective at The Black Dog Review.