Bullies, with a laugh,
push him down, pull
off his cap, toss it
over the bridge on his
way home from school.
Mam frowns at the news,
peeling potatoes for
the stew, as he kicks
a scuffed shoe while
hiding his bruise.
Somehow finding
courage, he goes
again to school,
finds a new route
home to fool
the rogues, stoic
for the day he opens
his own shop, hopping
the freight of a late
opportunity to make
a success of
a war-time business
dropped in his lap;
like the cap flung
years before,
flowing with
the runnaway current.
first published in The Rockford Review
©2018 Bonnie Manion