i won
a gas powered
auger
in a raffle.
when they
announced my name
a red haired guy
in overalls screamed
bullshit!
he launched his
five gallon bucket
full of tackle
out onto the ice
and broke out a truck window
with a tire-iron
before the park ranger
cuffed him.
grandpa said
it was dale maas
how he was drunk
and an idiot
for buying
fifty tickets.
we talked about it
at dinner
grandma said
he'd been laid off
from apache hose
going on three months
and his wife
had run off to pennsylvania
with their daughter
and that preacher
from marengo
in december.
grandpa sold the auger
out of his small engine
repair shop
and gave me
the hundred bucks.
that was the last
i thought about it
until grandma and i
got to drinking gin
after bingo
last saturday.
you remember
the guy
way back
when i won that ice-auger?
i asked.
she finished her cigarette
snuffed it
and lit another.
terrible
just terrible,
she said
and told me how
bruce kearn's boy
had found him
hanging from that
deer stand
out at shimek woods
during squirrel season
about seven years
back.