Nico De Gallo

My dad told me his bullet wounds were belly buttons
I thought everyone had 4 belly buttons
My dad was a very artful liar
Him & my mother got into it & he shot her
& her boyfriend shot him & they both died
I became a ward of the state — In California they call it a 601
They can’t lock you in juvenile hall so they would put me in foster homes
& I would run away
Then I got in trouble and became a 602 — a juvenile delinquent
They were going to send me back to the foster home circuit in Mendocino County
But I said «fuck that» and started traveling
I was almost 15 & I had my first hitchhike from SF to Wichita County Kansas
A lot of corn