that and a drumstick
that and a drumstick
by bill shively
Where in the ink tree branch darkness
His feeling swollen and gnawing
Like a sodden chair headlights shoulder
A season’s passing
Broken like a song
All the sharp edges melting into the
Open culvert
Choked with branch, trash and truck tire, the staccato pines
Pass in the flashing
Bad dreams are the best dreams he has
That and a drumstick
Tough and dry in the ice box
The gray snow like his father
and trodden for days and days crusted
A wind grinding out the sun
Some mornings the color of green bread
And a spotted necktie
He swallows more breathing than drinking
Gasps like bus brakes when an image
Banshees and words are clear from welldepths ago
The sky as smooth as 80 grit can get
He loses sight sometimes of how far away
The end of the road is
Always morning breath and
Gin collar sweat Man! The rings he useta own.
This is Catch 23 and Catch 24
That’s what this is, but the bartender
Has another eye to open
And he goes and stands on the gravel
With the kids that will climb and the
Brutes that break rock and it is cold.
‘Sodden’, ‘a season’s passing’, and ‘trodden’ struck me as kinda Robert Frostian in an otherwise bell-ringing post-post modernist piece. The more i read, the more craft i saw at work. Phrases like: “He swallows more breathing than drinking
Gasps like bus brakes when an image Banshees and words are clear from welldepths ago…” really unrolled my fetal positioned imagination and jarred the maple syrup hmm-cogs loose. “This is Catch 23 and Catch 24” –yes! yes! You said it brother…between a rock and Chuck Norris is this THIS!
Compelling without too much yelling! And it doesn’t hurt that the editor blessed your submission with a pic of a naked chick raiding the fridge after orgasmic making love sessions. Dammit. I want a naked chick too. If only i could write a poem worthy of one. For right now, i’d just be happy if anyone commented: “hey mofo, i read your poem in the nude.” i got 10 bucks on it.
Hey mofo- I read your poem in the nude. And your wife responded to my email. It was funny stuff. I wasn’t nude when I mailed, though.