JASON DEBOER's work has appeared or is forthcoming in many magazines worldwide, including Quarterly West, Rosebud, Stand, Other Voices, The Barcelona Review, The Wisconsin Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Failbetter, Pindeldyboz, Eleven Bulls, 3AM, and CrossConnect.  

                                                      richard widmark

I wanna sneer like Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death. The twitching lip, the iron face, the hate ecstatic. I wanna shove crippled old ladies down the stairs as I grin, mesmerized by the battered wheels of their chairs. …

Spinning slower, ever slower.

I wanna name like Tommy Udo, a name worth fearing, embossed on brass knuckles and the handle of my gun. I wanna cackle at the dying stars and, with a stare, silence that worthless stool pigeon called God.  I wanna sweat other men's blood.  I don't ever wanna see another man smile when I laugh.

Ever.

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© 2003 Jason DeBoer
["Richard Widmark" originally appeared in Sprock in April, 2003]