Mean Color-Guard Grandpa
1991-01-23
When Grandpa Joe was about 85 he got mean.
Not just ordinary, old-man mean, but hateful mean. All his teeth fell out, and his lip flopped in over his gums.
His balls shrunk and receded up into his wrinkled, shriveled abdomen, till he became just one little ball of hatred.
Once a he'd put on his old American Legion blue and gold cap and play color-guard for the Forth of July parade. He'd chew his lips and mutter to himself — "God's angry, I know'd it, God wants war." Grandparents want to fatten grandchildren up, because they will eventually eat them.