Ian Wang

Global Widespread Panic


It's nice out, finally, like Florida.
Tony Cirillo is wearing bowling shoes,
tie and jacket, no shirt,
and he's regretting all of it.
The grad student-cum-professor brings
them outside and says,
If you want to do Sports, it's okay, just try
to pick one story and concentrate on it.
Next to Tony sits Kelly Morgan, the
prettiest girl of the class, leggy, pale,
long reddish hair, expresses her
bewilderment at the little fact of alcohol
swabbing before lethal injection. What
is the point? Isn't it a waste of an alcohol
swab? Well, the point is, says Andy
Nguyen, who has long set the
goal of hooking up with Kelly before
sophomore year ends, it's just ironic,
don't you see. Kill the bacteria
before you kill the person, that's
the least they can do, so they can
say they are giving a clean death.
Kelly reads her story a little more
and gets up to go talk to the teacher.
Andy whistles after her. Tony looks
over at him. Tony is sweating
and still regretting. Andy stretches
his arm muscles under the sun.
"Ooh, hot!"