A Battle With Butter by Kevin M. Hibshman

It was an outdoor gathering.

Family and friends in the Summer backyard heat.

Hamburgers and hot dogs.

All the classic picnic items I believe were present.

I was probably fourteen or fifteen.

I was something of a clown with the budding desire to entertain.

I liked to get laughs and most often, could.

We were all chomping on corn on the cob.

I put a pat of butter on my knife. aiming like I was going to shoot it off at my neighbor girl.

She jeered me on, knowing I wouldn't actually fire it at her.

Suddenly, I felt a stinging sensation in my left eye and that eye went blurry.

It took an embarrassingly long moment for me to realize that I had unintentionally lobbed the aforementioned chunk of butter into MY OWN EYE.

Son of a bitch, it stung.

I jumped up and ran into the house amid confused laughter I did not willingly solicit.

Upstairs in the bathroom, I doused my greasy eye with cold water.

It was a mess.

It was a few days before the redness and irritation began to subside.

I wondered if I would ever see out of my left eye again.

Kevin M. Hibshman has had poems published in many journals and magazines world wide.In addition, he has edited his poetry zine, Fearless, since 1990 and is the author of sixteen chapbooks including Love Sex Death Dreams (Green Bean Press, 2000) and Incessant Shining (Alternating Current, 2011).

His current book Cease To Destroy from Whiskey City Press is currently available on Amazon.