I hope none of the kids at my school ever has to write something like this.

My Glossary of Curse Words
by: sAm RaY, age 8

Ass: is where he hits you, with the belt or his hands, if you are lucky & he is not too mad.

Asshole: the taste of coke cans with cigarette butts inside of them on  the morning after their friends come by.

Bitch: the light from the living room shining in your eye & the sound of a slap & a sob from your mother.

Cocksucker: a punch in the guts while blood runs in your eye, the smoke curling off the end of the inevitable roach clip laying in the ashtray.

Cunt: his workmen, telling you to save the smell of the secretaries if they let them put your fingers in there, as they laugh and take off on some job or another with him.

Dick: the feel of his hands around your red raw aching throat, as he spits the word and his own spit all over your teary face and he bangs the wall behind you with your own head.

Faggot: the feel of Dana Gair’s slap on the back of your neck as it turns red at the same time as your cheeks and you burst out crying in front of the entire second grade class.

Fairy: your mother’s face all screwed up, talking about an elementary school teacher of hers and how mean all the kids were to him.

Goddammit: the pillow over your face, him screaming “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP” until you can’t get enough air in to scream, the smell and taste of head sweat clogging up your throat until you pass out.

Motherfucker: the feel of the car swerving around in those few seconds’ right before the glass breaks and the whole world is thrown around for a loop, and you bite your tongue and just for a second everything goes slow & you can just see, just for a second, a perfect round bubble of spit and blood hover in the air of the backseat of the Karmen Ghia before everything speeds up again and the bubble bursts all over your face.

Nigger-lover: running thru the house as he chases you around when he finds out your imaginary friend is named “Lakeida” before you change it into something more acceptable & gender neutral like “Akka & Bock”

Puss, Puss, Pusssssy: sitting around the dinner table with your aunt saying she can’t hear him saying it over & over again under his breath as he sits between you and her and her calling you a liar.

Son of a bitch: waiting for the train to pass at the second set of railroad tracks on Paul Mallard Road, coming from the river; the feel of his rough calloused hands grabbing your hair from the front seat of the car and just popping your head off the back of your mother’s head rest.