Too Soon?

 

headed to get groceries and

run errands with my wife

I notice the the gargantuan flag

at Camping World, where they

sell recreational vehicles is at half mast

this flag is the biggest

that I have ever seen

I ask my wife

“what happened, why is that flag at half mast?”

she doesn’t know

she hasn’t heard anything

I haven’t been keeping up

with the news lately myself

we get our groceries and

on the ride home get to the intersection

of 59 and 90

where roughly thirty flags fly on poles

and none of those are at half mast

then it dawns on me that maybe

nothing at all had happened

maybe the workers at the r.v. place

are just too lazy to lift that

heavy ass goddamn flag

and to justify their said laziness

assume that another mass shooting

will happen soon enough

 

 

 

 

 

More Than Expected 

 

perusing the telephone

singles lines in the late nineties

listening to 20 second messages

a decade or more

before any dating apps existed

where pictures are seen

and locations are known beforehand

this was the Wild West

Russian roulette in a sense

a true gamble

you went by voice and actually

had to trust that the person

on the other end was who

they said they were

trust in humanity?

I know it sounds ridiculous

but I digress

I used to make actual

lists while talking to girls

as to why I shouldn’t be

talking to said girls

but sometimes against

my better judgement

or out of sheer desperation

I would want to meet occasionally

so after a little while on the phone

one night with a cute sounding girl

I got her address and headed her way

it was about a half hour drive

with vague directions

roughly a decade before

regular people had GPS

I was somewhat familiar

with the area so I had that

going for me

as I made the left down

the dirt road into a trailer park

I started to get that

‘what the fuck are you doing’ feeling

and when I pulled up to the dilapidated

mobile home I audibly said

“what the fuck am I doing?”

I soldiered on

I got out of my car and

walked toward this movable home

I passed piles of trash

dogs on chains

and a beat up

El Camino on blocks

I knocked on the door

and a dirty kid answered

I asked for whoever 

and the dirty kid screamed out

whoever somebody’s here for you

as I peered through the door

numerous inbred looking faces

looked back at me

there must have been ten

people in that living room

finally she emerged

In all her glory

we locked eyes

and both gave a good

once over to each other

I was shocked

but the first thing she said to me was

“you are bigger than I thought you would be”

I was taken back

and a little embarrassed

but totally confused at the same time

because as I eyed her I noticed

a well defined at least eighth month

pregnant belly on her

I took a step back and said

“well that makes two of us”

I laughed and cursed all the way home

 

 

 

 

 

The Man From Dublin

 

there was a man from Dublin

he celebrated St. Patrick’s Day

with boatloads of Guinness

he was a catholic who dressed in

scary costumes to ward off

spirits during the festival of Samhain

he listened to music heavy

in fiddle, piano, and acoustic guitar

combined with instruments like Irish

bouzoukis, uilleann pipes, and

celtic harps known as clairseach

he danced in Irish jigs, reels, and step

he wore wooden shoes and dresses based

on designs found in the Book of Kells

he believed in the banshee

the tales of Fionn Mac Cumhaill

and leprechauns

he loved football and potatoes

he only read literature by

Swift, Yeats, Wilde, Shaw, and Stoker

he was the town weirdo

an outcast

because the man was from

Dublin, Georgia

 

 

 

 

Night Moves

 

at a strip club in Theodore, Alabama

white trash

redneck

ambiance

it’s dark

but neon lights illuminate

the toothless meth-heads with tits

“coming to the stage, charlotte”

says the dj

then it is seen

a half naked woman in bra and thong

takes the stage

only one thing

she has one normal arm

and one little chicken wing arm

she tries her best to be sexy

prancing around the stage

then

the pole work begins

she rests her little deformed arm on the pole

and walks around it

normally girls would be

swinging and twirling

my friend pity tips her

I say to myself

this is fucked up

she should be waitressing

at least she has one good arm

to hold the tray