I admire the fit of the monkey into the alarm
& the women who drive their obscene sofa trucks from mailbox to church
… well, this is notebook land, deadpan ghost railways
no one travels here without a blade somewhere on her person

the land girls are feather happy
filling their days with reports of carnival
and no one goes into the tunnels because the people
who live down there get no nourishment from clocks
and are the invention of various conspiracies venomous and rigid with confession
& sneaking even deeper into the darker corners with their beds close by

the sass is always wrong
beginning with the first letter of the first word
but the prophets keep pumping it out
for an audience that prefers magic, not miracle

not caring when we are spoken to
in the woozy language of the dogs
we are considered to be

Selected byNolcha Fox
Image credit:Catherine Hughes

Sunken ships--the rats calling the place home didn't make it out either--the oldest daughter didn't like me to begin with and Momma didn't know what to do with my love in the corral--I decided not to wait around for the movie and headed for Arizona where I met Jaci--she liked me pretty much and was into history--I told her I would meet her in the Indian ruins that night for love in the dust--

she said, "oooooooooo that makes me so wet!"

How did I do, Jay? Is this what you were looking for?