Times Argus

by Damon Hubbs

the paper isn’t the hundred-eyed

Greek giant its name suggests 

and that’s how Jimmy

got away with it for so long

he’d worked the sports beat for years

covering Double-A games

down at Damaschke Field.

Jimmy knew the park well

he knew where the high school girls

got picked up for soccer practice and 

how long it took their parents to get there.

Jimmy knew the way Umbros fit the leg

the touch

the dribble

pink high gloss and matte

rubbing the sheer afternoon sunlight

he knew if one

of the girls walked home alone

backpack over her shoulder

taking the shortcut

to a cold

mutilated mattress

in a dark, locked

room 

Damon Hubbs: film & art lover / pie bird collector / author of the chapbook The Day Sharks Walk on Land (Alien Buddha Press). His second chapbook, Charm of Difference, is forthcoming in 2024 (Back Room Poetry). Recent poems have been featured in South Broadway Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Fixator Press, Otoliths, Apocalypse Confidential, and Book of Matches. He lives in New England. @damon_hubbs