Dreams of fist fights
With strangers in new cities
Where I'm welcomed with a single exception
One young tough hombre needs to test me
So I am openly mocked
Everyone else tries to ignore it, embarassed
But my ears get red
And I respond with unwanted sarcasm
Or is that exactly what he wants?
Gradually the conflict escalates
To tipped beer cups and thrown ashtrays
Anything to provoke my first fist
And it inevitably breaks
He's strong
But I'm angry and in the right
So we're separated quickly
Which was his plan all along
And then it resumes, again and again
Until finally I've proven myself
Or something
I tense at his presence until he says
"Hey, man"
And I must be all right now
For he's given me a gift
A fantastic, preposterous gift
It's an enormous inflatable something
Like a latex carnival ride
In pink and blue and orange
With a slide, a staircase and pinwheels
We all pass joints and look at it