I watched Top Gun up in my room. I dyed my blonde hair black. I threw on some aviators, grabbed my dad’s car keys and an ice cold Budweiser.
Maybe there was a Pete “Maverick” Mitchell lookalike contest in the basement of the Y on Harrison next to Harry’s Hair Store and that burned-down doggy daycare. Maybe there wasn’t but I was blasting “Take My Breath Away” anyway going 80 down 580 on my way when a cop lit me up.
“Who do you think you are, Tom Cruise?” he said through the window. I laughed. He didn’t.
“I just watched Top Gun,” I said over my aviators.
“I hate that movie,” he said down his nose. “How old are you, son?”
I hiccuped.
He took me back to the station and called my dad, so I slept in a cell with my hands stained black.
In the morning, I woke up and forgot my aviators. I drove home slow. I scrubbed and scrubbed my hands, but I couldn’t get them clean.
Keith Gaboury earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. American Poetry Systems published “Monetized Happiness” (2025), Falkenberg Press published “Still Human” (2025), Kelsay Books published “The Cosmos is Alive” (2023), and The Pedestrian Press published “Oakland, I’m Not Dead” (2020). Find more of Keith’s work at keithgaboury.com.
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