Downhill Verses from Dead Mare Branch

Downhill Verses from Dead Mare Branch Truck Driver My name is Mack. It's printed on my cap. What did you figure: Toro, Peterbilt, Coors? I see "K.M.I." on yours, And what does that mean- "Kentucky Mental Institute?" By the hang of your jaw there's no dispute. Damn, you touchy! Working up a heat. Hell, Old Son, I'd as soon to fight as to eat. But I need to shove on to Atlanta, Can't blow a minute on fists or banter, got to get my rig rolling, no time for foes, And coming from Big Mack that's no lie, So bye-bye, Bozo-I mean K.M.I.Don 't go sticking no beans up your nose. by James Still Knife Trader "You call that thing a knife? A pocketknife? Sort of does look like one. Open her up, let's see what she claims for blades. Call them blades? Son-of-a-beagle! They wouldn't cut hot butter on a summer's day. A granddaddy Boker, huh? Who told you that? Handed down in the family, aye? Genuine article? Asking a hundred dollars? Uh-uh. Don't try pulling that hockey on me. I've been swapping knives sixty-five years. I know knives like you know your wife, And I've heard more lies than I've heard facts, But I'll tell you what: You look like a fellow who could use two bucks, And that's all I'll shell out for it. Maybe I can sharpen the scudder a whet, And scoot a little Three-in-One along the cracks, And put it off on some witty with no more brains than a jaybird, And get my money back. Just maybe." Of the Faithful Staunch Republican was she, Wholly, absolutely Till hell freezes over; Solid as a gold diamond Plumb back to Abraham Lincoln. (Don't call him "Abe"; I hear he didn't like it.) She endured the bad yearsThe terms of the opposition: The New Deal, the New Frontier, The New Society, But with scorn, anguish, horror. "The Democrats," she scoffed, "Don't even know what makes a pig's tail curl." When it happened-after Roosevelt's fourth electionThat her calf caught a leg in a fence And crippled it wholly, absolutely, She cried, "It's that man in the White House!" 9 ...