Lazy Eye & Tumbleweeds

By Melanie Browne

Once while buying chocolate milk in a convenience store in Raton,
I met a man with Lazy Eye.
Maybe it was Evil Eye (it’s all a little fuzzy now) .

He was wearing a faded camo jacket.
He held a hand in front of his eyes to shade the sun.
He said “hello.”
I told him “I’m from Texas.”
I tried not to stare.

He told me to watch out for the tumbleweeds,
He said
If the wind was strong enough and the sun hot enough,
They would literally catch on fire, little balls of flame bouncing across the highway.
He showed me the scars to prove it.

“There,” he said, pointing at his eye.
“Here too,” he lifted up his shirt,
Pointing at the mutilated skin on his stomach.

I drank my chocolate milk and pondered quietly for a minute what the man had said.
I decided it was probably bullshit,
But I thanked him for the advice.