Don't order filet mignon or pasta primavera at Waffle House until you tried Granny's entrée. It was on a Friday night, wringing the neck of a vampire chicken, with a mist of Aqua Net Super Hold, rising. Granny was serving Blackeye peas and jalapeno cornbread and finger-licking good. We were drinking from Mason jars. The liquid that is left behind after boiling greens or beans. Usually with a squeeze of crawdads wings to g...

The naked truth about Cheetos, leaving me sweating in my birthday suit. Playing, "Olly olly gluten-free," with a bag of Cheetos. Waiting for my dip to come in with the evening's fries. With catsup on the side, dripping into my beenie weenies without an invocation or a bowl of hominy grits, floating in redneck gravy. Cheetos makes one as lazy and dumb as a parsnip thinking Annie Okra turns tricks. Blaming Gumby for unnatur...

Jerry Lee Lewis has the juice but where has Tabasco gone for my redeye gravy and memories turned to shade on a stone beneath bones of the Magnolia Pluckin' the ol' gitfiddle of one's life with death's obituary and a Dr. Pepper and leftover dreams of sad songs now everyone is goin' away turned to shade on a stone But sing one more song, Jerry Lee, "Whole lotta shakin' goin' on."

A bushel full of my eye. In fields of autumn and the cornstalks. With the shadow of the cider mill and the glowing meadows among the pumpkins. Giving inspiration as the wind's calliope dances. Seeking antiquity's faith and salivation. Based on Philosophy from nature's sewing basket. Whispering in my ear, the song of the cicadas with violins and folded wings. In pantomime of memories and old rubber tire swings.

In my hand, the sand shaker and the utensil which I scribble. In the throat of the dark, I sleep in the inkwell. Hearing the footfalls of voices. "This little piggy, he brings a fork..." From the shadow space of bedlam's widow. Now a hollow shell on the pillow. Catching a breath, making a cat's cradle from strings of death's library. Inhaling the screams of illicit dreams. Perhaps, another theme. From the inner sanctum of...

In a seance with myself, not suffering ghost. But the dead get lonely. Just ask the next guy, parallel parked next to my stone. I seem to have all the symptoms of a decaying corpse with sagging flesh soaked in formaldehyde. Surrounded by rednecks and fools who squeeze the Ouija. Cemeteries are for wimps, bloating with gas, and playing Lotto with their Harley. Jesus doesn't have 76 tattoos to lead the Cheeto Parade. I am l...

Listening to Chuck-will's-widow singing the same song of loneliness as nightjars pulling at my heart when I should be sleeping with the cruise of the night and dreaming of my rocking horse with a wink from mom's eye sailing off in a wooden shoe listening to Chuck-will's-widow and saying my prayers... Amen

Away from the carbon dioxide and the clatter of the city and the citizenry sleepwalking. Away from the mainstream and their need to know. Now breathing fresh air from the manifolds in the trees. No rabbit hole to hide in or Johnny B. Goode in Police uniforms to issue citations. Now smitten by Mother Nature and comfortable in our skin. Playing our own Bossa Nova. Living life with the luxury of not stepping on a fool's toe....

In cozy dreams with mimes of twilight and a peppermint patty neath the willow tree whispering winds octave with emotions in blue overshadow waters and creek stones listening to piccolo reeds as autumn dances on fallen leaves of a peppermint patty sweet as the night, unwrapped, melting in my mouth

Like naked Swallows this is how I was born leaves are our only cover in the lemongrass and no need for armor abandoning the heirlooms and the ignorance of man now stripped of my veil nothing else to reveal for the love of you and naked kisses in the lemongrass

Flowers of smoke choking the timbers curling around my forfeiture from chimney's sweep dark torches of roses now turn to ashes from the winter shed then turn to dead with eyes in the embers

When the crawdads sing just north of N'awlins the Book of Revelations over rice and red beans marinated in cider pressing the flesh in someone's gumbo up the Bayou with Tabasco neath' shadow of cypress knees listening to zydeco

From the larder of my portmanteau. I address the coming of the beast. Rocking the wooden horse, wearing shoe lifts from Abercrombie & Fitch. Beating a brass spittoon with a gewgaw in the asylum of my mind's cabaret. Scratching at my feet of raven clay, tapping on cataracts of the toad's rigor mortis. Whetting my appetite for the soul's corset line, Sparring me no garter. Raising my hackles. Dressed in a johnny gown and ch...

Riding in on a charley horse with a crow rocking your nightmares away dressed in a blue suede suit God Bless, you buried gentlemen of roadkill and bones at times a tooth fairy when you sleep not as macabre as it sounds the crow doesn't kill it just eats

Footless crow rising from a storm of bed with green flies swallowing the dead while life is at rest sucking on numb because in the end, we are all spoon-fed striking a lucifer for a twilight shag as zombies eat from plastic bags moldy old banana bread from diners, drive-ins, and dives for it ain't Heaven, it's just hash with green flies swallowing the dead