The first time he opened the wad of tinfoil he wondered

what it was all about, but he took one with the cross-

hatching on it and half an hour later felt like God, Jesus and

The Holy Ghost. He believed Bob Norton when he said

he had played with Spirit last time they were in town. Who

was he to disbelieve a runt in braces hanging upside

down on the jungle gym?

Jim Bartruff’s work has appeared in Fat City Review, New Verse News, JAMA, Canto, Westwind, Barney, Marilyn,  and Drastic Measures. He is a past winner of the William Carlos Williams and Academy of American Poets prizes. A third-generation native of Los Angeles, he was previously a print journalist and screenwriter, now living in Portland, Oregon.