Mercurochrome by Steve Klepetar

There in shadow, steep stair wells
in brick buildings
around a dying square of grass.
How they chased us, as if
behind those hedges anything would grow.

Curses broke against our backs.
We learned to write them on the walls
in colored chalk,
hopped on sidewalks, leaped off stoops.

Across the street the high school,
immense and brooding and the rocky field
we weren’t allowed to use. We climbed the fence,
They chased us out with curses. We lost our ball.
In weeds we cut ourselves on broken glass,
went home to the kiss of mercurochrome on torn up knees.



Steve Klepetar lives in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. His work has appeared widely in the U.S. and abroad and has received several nominations for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.