Wednesday, June 17, 2020

CaLokie AKA Carl Stilwell

Hooky Highway

Cotton blond Dean James so cool
Whenever any hair’s out of order, he throws
head back and every strand falls back
in place like it’d just been combed

Dean’s dad owns two postwar model cars,
motor boat on trailer and power mower
Best Bermuda lawn on block
No goddamned crab grass allowed!

Dean gets to drive shinin’ white
‘49 Ford any time he wants
Old man don’t give shit son’s
too young for driver license

Dean and Natalie crazy about each other
He likes to drive her to Springlake
amusement park and thrill the hell
out of her on roller coaster rides

One spring morning
Dean and Natalie feel day
too beautiful to waste
on boring eighth grade classes

Speed limit sign says 65
but Henry Ford
don’t make Model T’s no more
FASTER! FASTER!

75 Miles per hour
Depression...World War II behind
Good times rollin’ like Oklahoma hills
FASTER! FASTER!

85-90...Washita River Bridge before
Let’s see whatya got, hot mama!
It’s a great day
to die in the Indian State



Christina (9/11/01-1/8/11)

Why does an estranged man
have the right to buy a Glock 19
along with three 30 bullet clips
to carry concealed without permit
to a supermarket for Second Amendment
redress of grievances
over the right
of a bright third grader to
dance
jump in rain puddles
play baseball with boys
meet her congresswoman at a supermarket
for a lesson on democracy
and tell daddy every morning
it’s time to wake up

and why do they call pro-life
those supporting the right
of  embryonic life to be born regardless
the circumstances of conception
even if they’re also for the right
of an estranged man to buy a Glock 19
along with three 30 bullet clips
to carry concealed without permit
to a supermarket for Second Amendment
redress of grievances
over the right
of a bright third grader to
dance
jump in rain puddles
play baseball with boys
meet her congresswoman at a supermarket
for a lesson on democracy
and tell daddy every morning
it’s time to wake up

and why do so many people fear
the loss of the right
of an estranged man to buy a Glock 19
along with three 30 bullet clips
to carry concealed without permit
to a supermarket for Second Amendment
redress of grievances
over the loss of the right
of a bright third grader to
dance
jump in rain puddles
play baseball with boys
meet her congresswoman at a supermarket
for a lesson on democracy
and tell daddy every morning

it’s time to wake up



Millennial Grad

Omar, what’s the matter with you?
It’s twelve weeks before you’re to graduate
from the City of Angels Home Studies School
and you’re arrested for trying to steal a car.

It’s ten weeks before graduation, Omar.
You’re out on probation and you’ve got a second
chance to be part of the first class to graduate
in the new millennium. Don’t blow it!

It’s eight weeks to go before graduation, Omar.
You have three courses to complete to get yhour diploma
and if you’d spend at least as much time studying
as you do partying, it’d be a piece of cake.

 It’s six weeks to go before graduation, Omar.
One down, two to go--both English, your most difficult
subject.  But hey, you’ve got seven baseball trophies
in your room, so you know what it takes to win.

It’s four weeks to go before graduation, Omar.
Two down, one to go. Hear you got a job and Ana’s now
your girl friend. She’s a hell of a nice girl and oh,
them there dimples! But some of your friends have said
part of the writing on your last assignment was hers. Hmm!

It’s two weeks to go before graduation, Omar.
You drive by school, hand in your last Contemporary
Composition assignments for final five csredits.
That Saturday you take Ana to Disneyland.

It’s one week to go before graduation, Omar.
You were no gangbanger but shot and killed anyway
in front of your home by some guy who I hear
had this longstanding grudge against you.

Omar, it’s one week after graduation.
Like Hamlet’s flight of angels, a dance band on truck
leading the procession sing you to your rest.
Your mama asks that there’ll be no revenge.
She doesn’t want any mother to go through what she has.
Farewell, New Era grad.

1 comment:

  1. Dean James and Natalie (Wood)...dare devil driving..death by speed. Rebel Without a Cause....

    ReplyDelete