‘A Dare’: Performance Poetry by Ollie Schminkey [Button Poetry Video]

By Button Poetry

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Ollie Schminkey, performing at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul, MN.

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Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.

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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:02
So I’m 17 and my ex-boyfriend Nathan is holding his new girl Sarah’s hand
0:06
at the hardcore show, and I leave crying because I thought
0:08
the fact that we were fucking it meant something different.
0:10
My best friend Ariel holds my hand, and we drive home,
0:13
but I hit a raccoon on the way, and I scream and then cry
0:15
because all the raccoon was trying to do was get home.
0:18
Earlier in the concert, a boy had come up to me
0:20
and asked me if he could kiss me.
0:22
When I said no, he said, “Come on, I’ve got $20 on the line.”
0:27
I told him he could kiss me on the hand.
0:30
He frowned but he did it while his friends watched.
0:32
I bet he lost his money.
0:35
I don’t care about boys anymore, but I do sometimes still feel like a dare.
0:40
My dad never gave a fuck what people thought of him
0:42
even before he got sick.
0:44
He was loud and mean and smelled bad and never wore sunscreen,
0:47
like the sun better fucking dare and give him cancer.
0:51
Which it probably did.
0:53
But that’s not what he died of, so it’s chill.
0:57
Sometimes, I feel like one of those gas station hot dogs,
1:00
just turning and turning on those little tubes
1:03
because I smell bad, but I’m often not loud.
1:07
Sometimes I think about
1:08
what if Nathan hadn’t been holding his girlfriend’s hand
1:11
or what if I had full on kissed that dude and then bit his tongue off?
1:15
Was it a dare because they thought I was hot
1:17
or was it a dare because it would be funny?
1:20
Going into public with my father was always hard
1:22
because he was loud and smelly and mean.
1:25
And after he got sick, it was hard because he was loud and smelly and dying.
1:28
He had open sores on his arms that peeled open like blooming tulips.
1:33
He had a cough like marbles in his throat.
1:36
His hair was in a long ponytail, and he didn’t always make a lot of sense.
1:39
But I never saw anyone be mean to him.
1:41
It always felt like they respected how mean he used to be,
1:44
even though he wasn’t mean anymore because he was dying.
1:48
I remember how the body of the raccoon shook the whole car,
1:51
the way such a small animal was crushed underneath a wheel
1:55
but did not go without notice,
1:56
how it died, but in its dying left a dent on your car
1:59
you would have to look at every time you got in to go anywhere.
2:04
I keep a clear glass ball of my dad’s hair
2:07
hanging from my rearview mirror.
2:10
I look at it when I need to feel tough,
2:12
when a motherfucker cuts me off in traffic,
2:15
when I need to know the damage my body can cause when I go.
2:19
(cheers and applause)

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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