Garden of Rattler Daisies
Original:
the first one i hid neath a single cornstalk after the air stopped comin from outta his nose short and raspy fore that his eyelashes gummed together like dryin elmers glue back when heed get bruises from crawlin outta his crib in the night to sleep in the suitcase hind the door but under that cornstalk he was the rattler daisy keeper two summers later i planted the second one just stalks away from the first his face had nothin special when he pulled out my stomach and fell to the floor just a freckle in the dip neath his nose and outta that freckle grew the prettiest rattler weed ever seen i fed um the hooch filled sweat that been squeezed from their dads overalls and fist fulls of chewed up sunflower seeds come straight outta that sonnabitchs rotten teeth seven of um down there all totin the world on their backs below the dirt and cow shit and rags tossed out the back window when the sewer backed up and come runnin out all the cracks in the house but there be no way to stop it til we fed it more babies pull the stalk up by the roots and tie it bout their backs tight nuff it leave dents in their sides a harness that kept um from floatin way i wrap their hands round the butts of my cigarettes for keepsakes cause i knew they be scared when the earth shake come october when their rattlers be ripped from the stalks above um you hear um cryin when the wind tears through the fields early december, but only thing left be dust hittin gainst that single hinged screen door |
Process Memo:
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