Nits of a Louise
by Lou Crabtree
1.
Old men sit
On park benches
in shoes
filled with newspapers

Old men sit
in shoes
filled with molded straw

Yellow streams of piss
stain legs down
into shoes
filled with newspapers

Old men sit
on park benches
above yellow straw

Constantly dribble
and forget
to shake anymore

2.
The cats in the coliseum
Become cousins of other cats
Old gods become forgotten gods
The towers of Camelot
Fall into ruts like Soul City
waiting on
That Great Getting Up Morning

3.
Time go long
upstairs, downstairs
dress up dress down
As one old dog
I am done done
going to get back up
up
in my tree

4.
I wanted to be
the crocheted edges
on the pillow case of life

5.
What the hell
the war got my old man
in Vietnam
He lived off his pension
too many years

What the hell
I like this welfare

If me and Johnny
had a geetar
We would sing the blues away.

6.
When I was young I said
twenty is old
At fifty I pushed old age
to seventy
At ninety I said
I am not sitting
and waiting on death
I am still pushing
7.
My black and brown and red brother
Does your heart beat like mine
Is your blood red like mine
Are your tears salty

I am the coyote
bringing game
to my mate
caught in a trap
I am the coyote
with my mate's need
to eat

I am the coyote returning
from soaking my fur
in waters
So my mate can lick
getting water from my fur
I will stand until and after death
though I could
Run free

8.
What matter
mine being
the sigh of women
who hadn't been
in the marital bed
for three years
Scared shoes tell
of my love life

9.
All of Alexander's campaigns
were won
with your hand in mine

You warmed me at Valley Forge
Cinderella's slipper
can never compare
with your tennis shoe
Guess whose initials were on it

I dreamed you stepped
from your pumpkin chariot
into my revved-up motor
Don't talk to me of Hannibal
When Helen of Troy
sits four desks across from mine.

10.
Oh sea! Oh sea!
Swelling
pounding
pulsating
in crescendo foaming
pulling mighty man
to your bosom

Oh sea! Oh sea!
Your face spent in aquamarine
Silk sea grass
compressing the stars
winking with sun-tipped fingers
at sunsets.

11.
So what the hell!
Sleeplessness and poor metabolism
With memory loss and arthritic bones
Why did I plant the tree today
to bear fruit for fifty years
Why am I planting hollyhock seed
grapevines, mama's hibiscus
this raspberry vine fruiting
spring and autumn, twice per year
Why?
Fertility?
NO
This day dawning
the sun the moon
in the universe
as an evolving person
I go peacefully into
and part of
the magnanimous totality
of God's dispensation.

12.
Love thou hast been
in my life
like pink trillium flowers,
The petals dropped
at the passing
of a butterfly.
13.
I push you away
This line you cannot cross
though I beckon you nearer
and charm you with all my charms
I will still run away
You will not lay me down
And compromise my principals.

14.
We have only so much time
after ball games
the soaps
the races
Should I ever want, need
to communicate with you

I hear love yous from soap operas
have runs from ball games
the whine of wheels in auto races
Reverberating from you
in the hollow sound
with no time left
for us to learn our ABC's

15.
If I could detach myself
from whisky mornings
in corn fields
listening to the scissors sound
of horse drawn machinery
in corn fields
turning my back to pee

Sick of sleeplessness
puking, sighing, wondering
glad of it
if Bush really puked on
the President of Japan

 
©Copyright, Lou Crabtree