“I Never Looked Into Those Catatonic Eye’s”

There was red in the gutter and I’m not sure what from. 

It was either blood or rust or faded paint just 99 cents a tube. 

There was red in the gutter and I’m not sure what from. 

If it was paint just 99 cents a tube it was from the shop that smelled like lavender cleaning spray. But it was a little too dark and too serious in color to be paint just 99 cents a tube.

It had rained yesterday anyways. The red was recent. 

There was red in the gutter and I’m not sure what from. 

It was either the stray limping dog’s or the swollen feet man’s. 

The dog had no red on his yellow fur and licked no wounds on his hardened paws. Eyes to the man. 

The swollen feet man stood in front of the sign of the picture of red paint just 99 cents a tube. His feet were bare and walked on dog shit-caked sidewalks and dirty wounds that were bright red like that of the paint just 99 cents a tube. 

His eyes were wild but still, frozen in some past world where his feet could run and paint was always 99 cents a tube not just when on sale. 

There was red in the gutter and I’m not sure what from. 

I glance over to his half-buttoned shirt and work my stares down because why start at the face of who I should just ignore. 

His purple green red feet stand in a puddle of liquid flowing to the gutter and the man stands there in front of the red on the gutter staring into another world while a child walks past his purple green red feet he should ignore past the signs advertising paint just 99 cents a tube and through the door into the smell of lavender cleaning spray. 

And the man doesn’t know the paint is on sale just 99 cents a tube and the man doesn’t know what flows out of his feet just 99 cents a tube as he stares into another world I wonder what he’s thinking and I want to know his story but his purple green red dog shit-caked feet are too much for me when there is also 

red paint just 99 cents a tube.

Miguel Kumar is a senior in high school in Miami, FL who has been writing poetry for a few years. Most of his poems have to do with our relationship with memories and the past. In his spare time, Miguel enjoys playing guitar, exploring nature, listening to music, and (of course) writing.