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the birds are dancing on Mary Jane’s roof again
she perceives they are doing a Charleston and wishes they would turn off the Victrola outside the summer heat has faded the blue from the sky and is melting the window pane Mary Jane watches it drip and puddle on the sill with translucent hand she straightens her lace collar, sputters a dry cough and then wishes aloud for a glass of ice water later, after the sky has been painted blue again (but not the same color of blue, they never quite match the former hue, she notes) she realizes the pane has disappeared altogether with a deep sigh she closes her eyes, wills herself aloft and flies out the window first published Poetry Quarterly, 2014 Ice-laden cypress trees bow to
the bayou reaches feathery steam fingers toward the weather-burdened sky, belly full of winter, dragging the soggy earth A pelican nestles among cranes floats, drowsed, dreaming of far-off times when the sun king ruled its nest of muddy murk still harboring warmth torn from summer days south now oil refineries bellow white steam turrets imprisoned by Mid-winter’s pregnant belly exacting wrath on a slain grey horizon Telephone wire beaded black with birds watch barges struggle not to move to allow the world to turn beneath them New Orleans gray traffic apparatus grinds and blares a single-minded anguish the city sighs Above the bayou an icicle sheds one last tear and releases murky suicide ripples muddy water a crane starts - flaps her wings haunted by a long ago memory others watch her unneeded alarm nothing will move beneath these waters today ...................................................... First published Red River Review, May 2013 Flapjack says if you swallow Pop Rocks with Dr. Pepper
they explode out your bellybutton Bobby Zucker says that’s bullshit Flapjack says Bobby Zucker’s face is bullshit Penny she’s gonna tell Mama that Flapjack said “bullshit” Flapjack says go ahead cause he’s gonna tell Mama that Penny has a crush on Earl Tyler Penny says so what Flapjack says Earl Tyler is a white boy and she know so what Penny says she don’t care Flapjack says Mama do Tracy Lynn says Penny’s Mama is a racist Penny says you can’t be a racist if you’re black only if you’re white Bobby Zucker says that’s bullshit Flapjack says Bobby Zucker’s face is bullshit Penny says Bobby Zucker is a racist Bobby Crandle says ain’t no difference between white or black people and they should all shut up Flapjack says the important thing is you‘re American Bobby Zucker says if any of them Arabs come to town he’s gonna throw rocks through their windows to make them leave Everyone agrees that’s a good idea. Bobby Zucker dares the others to dare him to go knock on Old Man Harding’s door Tracy Lynn says no way Flapjack says Old Man Harding did something bad to some kid just like Bobby Zucker Penny says he ain’t supposed to go near little kids no more Bobby Crandle says Old Man Harding can’t leave his house the police said so Flapjack says Old Man Harding’s only got one eye and has a claw for a hand Bobby Zucker says that’s bullshit. Flapjack says Bobby Zucker’s face is bullshit Penny says they should go home now Bobby Zucker says they’re all chickens bwock bwock bwock bwock bwock Tracy Lynn says she wants to go home now too Bobby Crandle says he and Tracy Lynn gotta get back home before dinner time or Mom will be mad Tracy Lynn says goodbye as they walk away Bobby Zucker asks Flapjack if he dares him to go knock on Old Man Harding’s door Flapjack says Old Man Harding likes chubby white boys like Bobby Zucker Penny says they‘re scaring her and anyways it’s dinner time Flapjack says he’s hungry and he and Penny are leaving now Bobby Zucker says for them to wait and watch Penny says she saw Bobby Zucker go up and knock on Old Man Harding’s door Flapjack says when the door opened he and Penny ran away Penny says they had spaghetti for dinner Bobby Crandle says he and Tracy Lynn ain’t seen Bobby Zucker since that day Tracy Lynn says she saw Bobby Zucker’s mama crying Penny says if Old Man Harding can’t even leave his house how could he have taken Bobby anywhere Flapjack says he saw police in the back yard with shovels ... Penny says she got Mama to buy them some Pop Rocks and Dr. Pepper Flapjack says he ate them but Bobby Zucker was right nothing happened .......................................................... first publication Poetry Quarterly 2013 Mandy was her name
new kid 5th grade home room big deal for a small school same color hair as me purple dress with a ribbon I wanted to be her friend she wore the dress the next day and the following day I didn’t want to be her friend anymore purple dress that smelled like the school trash bin half empty milk cartons rotten in the afternoon sun snot etched map of dirt on her face never washed away we walked a wide circle around her mean kids held their noses I held my nose one day the school nurse came for her returned her in clothes mismatched from the pile of shame cast-offs kept for kids who pee themselves too big for her everybody laughed a shame worse than rotten milk grown ups explained her family had no running water sympathy not understood convinced us further she was unworthy halfway through the semester she was gone I didn’t miss her until now ........................................ first published The Germ, Fall 2013 Alabama, off I-20
a stand selling pecan pralines handmade by little old ladies genuine grandmothers Smiling white-haired lady on the logo Granny Ann’s Old Fashioned Pecan Pralines lace collar hair in a bun Inside two grannies measure and stir measure and stir in stale air-conditioning between smoke breaks frequent and long yellow, gap-tooth grins greet customers tattoos, leathery skin under tank tops raveled cutoffs leathery skin, leathery voices When no customers are around and sometimes when they are they cuss like truckers of whom they have known many TV blares reality as they work a harsh reality the new old-fashioned young women turned old with a praline recipe found on the internet They came en masse
a zombie plague devouring life fields and crops, grass and trees Day and night, they shrieked shrill homage to their sun gods who granted prayers banished rain, scorched the earth persuaded desert to envelop the countryside whole That’s when they descended from the north ranchers buying up cattle rescuing them from this new desert The old cowboys watched with fading hope as Yankee accents boasted bargains while they lamented hungry families, overdue debts All the while grasshoppers feasted mad orgies cannibalizing their dead a sacrifice to their benevolent gods until July heaved in crackling decay and desperation By August no one prayed for rain wasting God's time and theirs They prayed instead for an early frost to kill the grasshoppers |