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Albuquerque, NM, 1950’s
My family’s dinner table precarious
on top of a mountain,
my father talking at length
about lesser beings below:
angry people yelling,
driving fast;
misbehaving children,
not doing homework;
lowlife teens gone bad, drinking,
hot rods, tattoos;
Beatniks in black turtlenecks,
spouting poetry, pretending
to be nonconformists
while conforming to each other.
The table so high, air so thin,
it was hard to breathe.