John Lee Clark

THE BULLY

We boys were marching up to Rodman Hall for supper and he stopped and I bumped into him

He whirled around and pointed at me and touched his lips with his middle finger and slicked it back over his head

I protested

He said yes you touch my butt

I said me not not see you accident

He said not believe you

Before breakfast next morning he saw me watching Gilligan's Island

He switched the channel

Hey

He laughed

Next morning he did the same thing

I said oh that better thank you

He frowned and pressed the remote

That interesting me like

Switch switch switch

Then Gilligan's Island was on again

I said no no not that awful boring please other other

He laughed and left Gilligan's Island on

One time I was in the shower room and a rocket of water slammed into me

Fire extinguisher

I couldn't see anything except for a baseball cap

It was his cap

I laughed and said more more feel good come on

His last year I was still learning the art of the white cane and sometimes got delayed tapping off course at night

One night I veered off between Noyes Hall and Frechette Hall and a boy offered his arm

I didn't know who until under a lamp I saw a baseball cap

Inside Frechette Hall I thanked him and he smiled

A few minutes later Gary Karow our houseparent came up to me and told me that the bully was so happy after helping me and maybe I should ask him next time I needed help

I never did

Some years later he drove down to Texas with a friend to help him pick up a pick up truck

On his way back alone it was twilight and he turned off his headlights and veered left into oncoming traffic

A car swerved in time

Another swerved

Then it was a truck that couldn't swerve and that baseball cap

 

John Lee Clark was born deaf to an all-deaf family and became blind in adolescence. He is a graduate of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. His work has appeared in many publications, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Hollins Critic, McSweeney's, Poetry, The Seneca Review, and Sign Language Studies. His chapbook of poems is Suddenly Slow Handtype Press, 2008) and he edited the anthology Deaf American Poetry (Gallaudet University Press, 2009). He is married to the deaf cartoonist, Adrean Clark, and they live in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota with their three sons.