Lips-Puckered-Woman
rides her high horse into town
scouting for fresh meat
all the men of age
head for prettier pastures
all except Caleb
he believes he sees
something sinister in her
something like her soul
Category Archives: Poetry
driving down from Detroit to Miami
passing through Tennessee
or Georgia or wherever
I realize I haven’t eaten since
I gobbled a bag a Oreos in Ohio
so I stop at one of those
black and yellow Waffle Houses
it’s swarming with plaid and denim people
and waitresses who mistake me
for someone named Sweet Thing Sugar Darlin’
they’re too familiar and somehow intimidating
their big, bright red lips so friendly and feral
I order and wait, lost in the buzz of busy conversation
that doesn’t concern or interest me
when the country singer server plops my plate down
my food confuses me
“walnuts on pancakes?”
my twenty-two-year-old self ponders aloud
“them are PEE-cans” Sadie shoots back
shaking her big beauty shop hairdoed head
and the farmer or mechanic or serial killer
on the stool next to me snickers
like I’m the dumbest college graduated city boy ever
I eat as fast as I can without choking
on maple syrup and embarrassment
then hightail it outta there as They would say
when I turn out of the dirt parking lot
my tires kick up a cloud of red clay dust
that hangs in the rearview mirror
like the shadow of a bad memory
We take the time to get our loving right
To waste it angrily would be a sin
I wonder when we lost the will to fight
Our days seem shorter since we’ve seen the light
We greet each one with vigor to begin
We take the time to get our loving right
The two of us could bicker through the night
The both of us too stubborn to give in
I wonder when we lost the will to fight
We polish simple moments ‘til they’re bright
So memories seem almost crystalline
We take the time to get our loving right
How foolish were we sharpening our spite
That drive to prove who had the thicker skin
I wonder when we lost the will to fight
In victory we’ve learned to take delight
We finally found a way we both could win
We take the time to get our loving right
I wonder when we lost the will to fight
a boulder with a perfectly round hole drilled through it
way out in the wilderness where they can find no evidence
of man ever having been before
how did it happen a million billion years ago?
someone suggested erosion
the scientists said no way, the hole is too perfect, laser precise
a punny reporter christened it The Holey Boulder
people who can’t spell well misunderstood the moniker
and started turning toward it at noon
whispering prayers to a distant desert rock
worshipping an ancient mineral deposit
wishing death upon all those who don’t love above all else
a boulder with a perfectly round hole drilled through it
Wylde Abandyn 09/28/11