Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems

A Good Memory

A Good Memory I Wild Fruit I came to a bounty of black lustre One July afternoon, & didn't Call my brothers. A silence Coaxed me up into oak branches Woodpeckers had weakened. But they held there, braced By a hundred years of vines Strong & thick Enough to hang a man. The pulpy, sweet musk Exploded in my mouth As each indigo skin collapsed. Muscadines hung in clusters, & I forgot about jellybeans, Honeycomb, & chocolate kisses. I could almost walk on air The first time I couldn't get enough Of something, & in that embrace Of branches I learned the first Secret I could keep. 2 Meat Folk magic hoodooed us Till the varmints didn't taste bitter Or wild. We boys & girls Knew how to cut away musk glands Behind their legs. Good With knives, we believed We weren't poor. A raccoon Would stand on its hind legs & fight off dogs. Rabbits Learned how to make hunters Shoot at spiders when headlighting. A squirrel played trickster On the low branches Till we were our own targets. We garnished the animal's Spirit with red pepper & basil as it cooked N EON V ERN A C U L A R With a halo of herbs & sweet potatoes. Served On chipped, hand-me-down Willow-patterned plates. We weren't poor. If we didn't say Grace, we were slapped At the table. Sometimes We weighed the bullet In our hands, tossing it left To right, wondering if it was Worth more than the kill. 3 Breaking Ground I told Mister Washington You couldn't find a white man With his name. But after forty years At the tung oil mill, coughing up old dust, He only talked butter beans & okra. He moved like a sand crab. Born half-broken, he'd say If I didn't have this bad leg I'd break ground to kingdom come. He only stood erect behind The plow, grunting against The blade's slow cut. Sometimes he'd just rock Back & forth, in one place, Hardly moving an inch Till the dirt gave away & he stumbled a foot forward, Humming "Amazing Grace." Like good & evil woven Into each other, rutabagas & Irish potatoes came out Worm-eaten. His snow peas Melted on tender stems, Impersonating failure. To prove that earth can heal, He'd throw his body Against the plow each day, pushing Like a small man entering a big woman. IS New Poems 4 Soft Touch Men came to her back door & knocked. Food was the password. When switch engines Stopped & boxcars changed tracks To the sawmill, they came like Gypsies, A red bandanna knotted at the throat, A harmonica in the hip pocket of overalls Thin as washed-out sky. They brought rotgut Drought years, following some clear-cut Sign or icon in the ambiguous Green that led to her back porch Like The Black Snake Blues. They paid with yellow pencils For crackling bread, molasses, & hunks Of fatback. Sometimes grits & double-yolk Eggs. Collard greens & okra. Louisianne Coffee & chicory steamed in heavy white cups. They sat on the swing & ate from blue Flowered plates. Good-evil men who Ran from something or to someone, A thirty-year headstart on the Chicago hawk That overtook them at Castle Rock. She watched each one disappear over the trestle, As if he'd turn suddenly & be her lost brother Buddy, with bouquets of yellow pencils In M'ason jars on the kitchen windowsill. 5 Shotguns The day after Christmas Blackbirds lifted like a shadow Of an oak, slow leaves Returning to bare branches. We followed them, a hundred Small premeditated murders Clustered in us like happiness. We had the scent of girls On our hands & in our mouths, Moving like jackrabbits from one Dream to the next. Brandnew Barrels shone against the day & stole wintery light From trees. In the time it took To run home & grab Daddy's gun, 16 N EON V ERN A C U L A R The other wing-footed boys Stumbled from the woods. Johnny Lee was all I heard, A siren in the flesh, The name of a fallen friend In their wild throats. Only Joe Stayed to lift johnny's head Out of the ditch, rocking back & forth. The first thing I did Was to toss the shotgun Into a winterberry thicket, & didn't know I was running To guide the paramedics into The dirt-green hush. We sat In a wordless huddle outside The operating room, till a red light Over the door began pulsing Like...