Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

Rules

Todd told me at recess
That rules were just a construct
That was a word his older brother had taught him.
His older brother was in college.
Todd said that rules were just an idea in people’s heads
You could, if you wanted to, just not follow the rules.
That’s what Nixon was doing at the time.
Do what you want, and most of the time,
You could get away with it.
The times you don’t, –
Who cares, you’re free most of the time.
But, I said, there is that one time,
You get caught and sent to jail.
No, Todd countered – usually, you just get hollered at.
At worst, you get one up aside the head.
I was trying to imagine Nixon getting hollered at.
If he got one up aside the head,
Would they show it on the news?
You don’t start off with crime.
Start off with the easy stuff,
Look, I’ll show you.
Remember how Mrs. Ridgely
Told us not to leave the playground?
Now I’m going to go just to the other side of the fence.
Technically it was leaving the playground,
But not by too much.
He made it there, stayed for a good couple of minutes,
Then he ambled on back, taking his time.
Mrs. Ridgely never seemed to notice.
Now you go, just take your time,
Be natural
Don’t look guilty.
I looked naturally guilty most of the time.
Even though
I hadn’t done anything,
I would get caught.
Get hollered at.
Get one up aside the head.
I looked over at Mrs. Ridgely.
Mrs. Ridgely was looking over at the swings.
I made my move.
I was just almost on the other side of the fence
When I heard the whistle blow.
Todd told me later, that Debbie, sitting on the swings
Snitched me out by pointing.
(I would bet anything that it was Debbie
That snitched out the guys burglarizing the Watergate Hotel.)
Mrs. Ridgeley took me by the ear, back to the school building
And told me I would be there the rest of the recess.
When she got us all back to the classroom,
She took me out to the hall and hollered at me.
Then sent me to the office where Mr. Pendleton hollered at me.
He called my mother, who had to come and get me,
Then she hollered at me, and gave me one up aside the head.
When my, father got home, he hollered at me
And gave me one up aside the head.
Just a year or so later, Ford pardoned Nixon.
Eventually after college, Todd got a job on Wall Street.

 

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore. His poetry collection, Airhead and Other Poems was published this year by Read and Green Books.