He hadn’t been threatened
but he carried the knife
and so when he was threatened
he didn’t feel so bad.

He was threatened
because the freak
thought he could get away with it.

The freak came up to him to apologize
sort of.

They’d gotten into it
the other day
when the freak tried to bum rush the stage
at the outdoor concern
in the same park
they were both hanging out in right now.

When the freak got near the stage,
he just pulled the freak by his cane
away from the stage
while the freak cried,
“No! Not my cane!”
over and over again
until they were far enough away
from the stage
so as not to disturb anyone.

So the freak came up to him today
to make sure there were no hard feelings.

“Nah,” he said, hand out,
“I just wanted to make sure the show went off smooth.”
“Cool cool,” the freak said, “It’s just that…
It was dangerous, what you did.”
“Oh,” He said, “Like trying to break and enter
into somebody’s space?”
“Well,” the freak went on, “You didn’t have to take my cane.
I can’t walk without it.”
He couldn’t help but notice that his cane wasn’t in sight.
“You shouldn’t have fucked with me, man,” the freak said, louder,
checking around the park for his friends, looking on.
“Uh huh,”
“Cuz I will fuck YOU UP.” The freak was beginning to shout;
his friends were beginning to laugh.

“You getting what you need?” he asked,
“Your friends looking up to you yet?”
“Yeah, BE LIKE THAT!” The freak flicked and pranced away
and no one had to unsheath a knife at all.

No one had to see a thing
but he knew it was there all along
and that was all that mattered.