I wrote an annotation on this poem for class. I sort of like it…
I think its weirdness is growing on me

A Debt Is Paid
by A. Van Jordan

We younger kids were playing
when Johny took the stray
dog in his hands,
took a stick,
stuck it in the dog’s butt,
broke it off there.

We were just playing
and too afraid to stop
this staged nightmare;
too afraid he’d do
the same to one of us.

Years later, they say,
Johnny owed people.
The news did not surprise me:

he was found naked
hanging like a raw light bulb
from the ceiling of his garage,
body bloated,
hands bound,
a bouquet of credit cards
and dollar bills planted
in his ass. He swung
like that for days till
someone went to see what
the dogs were barking at.