What with Johnny Cash dying

What with Johnny Cash dying and George Bush in the White House, all in the same season, and my son moved out to Utah, all the news is bad news. I hate to hear it. I don't know how I'll get by. Everything I see—a run-down trailer, a house in the woods, squirrels scalloping lightly across a dusty road— makes me cry. And all the time Tm wondering who's going to hum me out of old graves; who's going to sing me a train rolling by; some prison walls for my spirit to climb? With all that's gone on this summer and autumn, what Tm wanting most— with how many minutes to go?— is a new novelty song, one that makes me laugh at my same old jig at the end of this same old rope. -E.D. Pendarvis 99 ...