I Scream Larry

I Scream Larry



In the summertime we hear the bells
and soon the van seems to appear
out of thin air and come slowly
up the street.

Larry somehow dug himself up again.

I scream Larry.

Soon the kids respond to Larry's crazy tunes.
Even some older ones and some adults as well.
Hell, why not?

“I want lust!” cries a little girl, licking her lips almost perversely.

“I want greed! Can I have greed mister? Please!” screams a boy,
jumping up and down with excitement.

“GIVE ME MURDER!” yells a fat kid.

I scream Larry looks at him with his dead, red eyes.
Blood trickles out of his mouth as he says to the fat kid,
“I'll show ya murder if ya talk to me like that chubs.
Oh, I'll show ya murder.”
A piece of a worm falls out of his mouth and onto the floor
of the van.  It lay wriggling there.
Larry stomps on it and laughs.

“I...I'm sorry, mister,” the fat kid says meekly.
“Can I please have murder?”

“That's better!” Larry says with a decayed smile,
scooping him out a big dish of sin.
He stumbles over to the open door of the van
and hands the bloody mess over to the fat kid.

The kids scream with excitement and run away.
I walk over to Larry who is surveying the rest of
the waiting sinners.

“Hey Larry!” I call out as I approach.

“Huh?” Larry glances over, seeing me.  “Oh...hey,” he returns.

“How'd you crawl out this time?” I ask,  leaning against the van.
“Shit,” he says with a sick looking grin.
“Was easy, just clawed through.
The ground's getting softer all the time,
wood all rotten. Ain't nothin'.”

He surveys the group of people again
continuing to grow as we talk.

I nod my head, watching the gathering crowd.

Suddenly I feel a chill and realize that Larry
is now looking at me, hard.  
His dead eyes immediately lock with mine.

“You gonna buy somethin' or what?” he asks.

I watch, considering the question as another worm
falls from his decayed face.


--msl2022