A Dirty Old Ice Cream Truck

See, in Scoville

We don’t get the nice

Ice cream truck

We get the dirty old

Ice cream truck

The one with the letters

All rubbed off

And the fourth wheel

All different

Like they stole it

From another ice cream truck

July comes

And it’s a hundred degrees

And your mom’s air conditioner

Is broke again

So you’re just sitting out in the front yard

On the two square feet

That isn’t straight up dirt

And you just stare at your toes

Like they’re going to do something interesting

Then the dirty old ice cream truck comes by

And the guy driving it

Is always somebody new

At some point

Every asshole in Scoville

Drove that ice cream truck

My cousin Joey drove it

After he got out of prison

Joey’s buddy Matt took over

When Joey went back to prison

After Matt it was Nick

With the bison tattoo

Danny with the gambling problem

Then Aaron with the drinking problem

Then Danny again for a little while

Then Bobby who used to sell his dad’s pain pills

To freshman at the high school

Don't get me wrong
Driving the ice cream truck

Did have its perks

You’d get a girlfriend for a few weeks

Usually some girl too young for you

Who just needed a ride around town

You’d get free ice cream

If you were brave enough

To eat it
Even though everybody knew
It was the cheap stuff
Shipped over from Pakistan

You’d get something to do

On the long summer days

When everybody else was just sitting around

Trying not to get into trouble

One day I rode in the back of the truck

When my fuck-up older brother

Had his turn in the driver’s seat

My father told him

If he couldn’t hold down a job

For the whole summer

He was getting his ass

Thrown out on the street

I told my father nobody drove the truck

For longer than two weeks

Let alone a whole summer

But my old man said my brother would break that tradition

Or get his back broken out in the real world

My brother was a week and half in the driver’s seat

The day I went riding with him

And I could tell it would be a miracle

If he lasted the rest of the afternoon

My brother and jobs

Didn’t go well together

And twenty years after he drove

The dirty ice cream truck

He would drive his car into a tree

As a way of ending

A lifetime of disappointment

Instead all he got were a few broken ribs

And two months recuperating

In my living room

I should have guessed that day

On the ride-along

That we were headed

For a lifetime

Of me propping him up

And him getting life spoon-fed to him

By his baby brother

That day I took all the orders

Handed out the ice cream

And hid the money from him

So he wouldn’t be tempted to pocket any of it

I gave him directions

So we wouldn’t have to drive

Past where the speed-traps were

Because I knew

He was driving with a fake license

It was good enough

To get him this job
Because the guy hiring him
To drive the truck
Didn't really care

But it wasn’t going to fool

A real police officer

We got through the afternoon

And I told him if he gave me a cut from now on

I’d keep hanging out in the back of the truck

And make sure he didn’t wind up homeless

Before he could start junior year

For the second time

I didn’t know that the next day

My brother’s room would be empty

With a note saying

He was going to California

He never made it that far

But he did spend a few good years in Montana

Helping this guy out on his farm

Before his bad habits

Bit him in the behind again

Every time I hear an ice cream truck

Or see one sliding down the street

Where I live now

I think of my older brother and me

Going all over Scoville

Then taking an unapproved trip

To the lake

In that dirty piece of junk

We treated ourselves

To two sundae cups

And watched the kids younger than us

Throwing themselves in the deep end of the lake

Where they found that body six years later

At the time I remember thinking those kids were babies

But now I realize they were just two or three years

Younger than me

Funny how old people seem

Depending on where you see them

Funny how things look

When you’re remembering them

Instead of living with them

I wouldn’t mind another run on that truck

With my brother

We haven’t talked since he got back on his feet

And walked out of my living room

With nothing but a bag full of sandwiches

From my wife

And two hundred bucks from me

I’d like to not think about him so much

But some things you can’t help

Some things just stick with you

Whether you want them to

Or not