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The Day He Stopped Walking Her
Home
(10 Versions)
By Daniel Shapiro
Version #1:
He saw her kissing
the captain of the football team or
the lead in the play or
the writer of The Love Note.
Version #2:
His father caught him
taking money from the safe.
His father showed him
how to behave.
Version #3:
He encouraged her
to devote herself
to The Lord.
She nodded.
Version #4:
"You got some nerve
walkin' a white girl home,"
the boy said to him,
revealing a blade.
Version #5:
He befriended The New Guy,
realizing he'd been wrong.
Girls, he learned, were not
the only option.
Version #6:
“I never saw him.
It was rainy. It could’ve
happened to anybody.
He came out of nowhere.”
Version #7:
He bent down
to pick up something,
ripped his pants,
and she laughed.
Version #8:
She found pictures of him
doing things
to animals, things
not to be talked about.
Version #9:
He got his license.
She loved the rev,
loved the way
the seats reclined.
Version #10:
He existed only
on the page.
His writer decided
to take his legs away.
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GH O TI