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Tuesday, April 13, 2021

late one night


by horace p sternwall




the swede got off work
at the factory and
came home and found
his mail order bride dead drunk
on the floor. an old wallet was
on the table and the
swede thought it belonged
to the polack. he went
out and went down to
the beer hall. the irishman said
the polack had not been
around all that night.
the swede went over
to ikey rosen’s pawn shop and
bought a knife
with five blades. next he went
over to the laundry but the
chinaman had not seen the
polack either. the chinaman told
the swede to go home and
sleep it off. later the chinaman
told the oft told tale to sheriff joe black.
look very bad, the chinaman said.
the swede will be all right
the sheriff told him, it’s not like
he’s some hotheaded
dago who is going
to get all excited and go
loco. the sheriff went outside
and looked down
the street. colonel porter’s
filipino houseboy snd a
couple of negroes were shooting
craps in front of miss wilson’s
dress shop which was
closed for the night. a cloud
passed over the moon.
the sheriff almost
stepped on a black cat and
it ran away, spitting fire and rain




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