Aphelion Issue 292, Volume 28
March 2024
 
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Diamond Pete's Osaka Run

by Jennifer M. Boudreaux


I've run the bullet-trains
straight fuck through Osaka's lanes
I've owned the top priority
high-traffic layers and spit on the
dirty old shakers below me

My trains hum
They skim sweet
and I reign in the panel with one finger

I've run the steel
platinum-smooth
underbelly gleaming beneath my boots
like the US quarter-bouncing abs
of an Okinawa Fungal

What's that, Yaki?
Mr. Torosanto's late again?
Well, this baby can back-jump with the best of 'em.
I've done it before, Mr. T-san
Throw a few Yencreds my way and I'll
jump you back to breakfast

Coming up, yet?
Taste those flapjacks rising?

Oh, I'm used to this.
Got Jumpin' legs and Snappin' hands
and a few jewels in between, ha ha!

This is nothing.
You should've seen Paris that Third Night.
Oh, I was there and Boy Howdy, I was snappin'
Hard and fast
The ramparts?
That's right.
They blazed?
That's right.
They blazed for weeks, I hear.
Your uncle, too?
Now, where was he?
The Banks?

Hell, those boys could jump, now!
I tell you this, Mr. T-san, I tell you well,
THAT was beauty rising.

Look here,
Know what this is?
A piece of the needle.
Cleo's Needle.

I came out of that one
with pockets full of these shards.
still smell the dust some nights

I smell it and my hand just flexes,
just like so,
still Snappin'

I see Mel7,
hear of her?
Right, who hasn't?
with good reason
Yeah, the mural and all.
No...no
I haven't seen it yet.

Well, I smell that dust
This hand flexes
and I see her hair
I see her wearing my gloves

Still has 'em
just like a woman to steal your goods
in the middle of a fuckin' war!
Ah, well, she can have 'em. No use to me now.

Hey, Mr. T-san, there we go, clear back to breakfast time!
I do thank you for another urgent request and hope...
Mr. T-san?

Shit, Yaki, get a bucket.


© 2000 Jennifer M. Boudreaux

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