Wrote Down Burns

Lay in my bed the stone
horseman with the moon going over there
towards old Turrentine's boat shack
like a cock in a den
like a green fly in the last sip
lay in my bed swimming
out of the lost cave yodelling mercy
lord jesus christ john r
evening in stripe pants leaning up against
the porch evening with a match
in its teeth evening strange nigger
following a string with a torch underwater
"only go in at night and do not wade"
lydia she wrote me in a letter they found
after she took poison
I came up along the face
of a bluff where the channel ran
my lungs were lilies
cussing out the moon hung together with dark
like camp dogs in a ditch
read those books with wet fingers
yell over to the boat of the old days
when the men chewed a match and thought
about their death
like yellow women strutting down the dust
lay in my bed with the rains falling
I remembered the rain
drive home buck naked lay in the shade
when you walk down the streets no one knows you

© Ginny Stanford