Friend. Did you happen to violate the law. Did you get a murder ticket.
Did you dope all night. Did you rob the convenience grocery store and
steal my daughter’s car. Are you so worried you just don’t know which
way to turn. I recommend you turn to Amco Bail and Bond. Just call
Ditty Bop. He’ll be there in ten or fifteen minutes. Don’t sit around at the P
farm with your feet all swole up, splitting open, and running over. Pick
up the phone. Soon as Mr. Ditty Bop picks up his hat and coat, he’s ready
to go.


                                Why not check it out and lock it down

                                Moving on my Christian friends, moving on into


Difficult to look at the woman
much less photograph        and not ask
about a scar that runs from one ear
          to the opposing breast

          whose babies died of smoke inhalation

Or the gasoline-wrecked face
of the green-eyed black man

          or her grease-splotched back and shoulders

Or the tattooed likeness of dead Elena
          on her sister’s forearm

          Mo dollars        Mo problems

          says the other forearm

The wrist lashed with paint chips once everything else
          removed from the cell

Or the one who ate the TV antenna

Her tattered ear; the totaled eyes of the woman who no longer
          knows a soul living on the other side

          Just came down for Mardi Gras

                                                Dialed her mother’s number
though she had not seen the woman in thirty years and knew full well
                         her mother passed

                         Tuesday’s just as bad

The guileless face of the one whose boyfriend beat her lastingly senseless

          Who told us her Auntie lived in Monroe but had to go
          because her house was possessed; at first the spirit was kind
          made her pots of coffee, dusted the furniture…

Wednesdays were important for Faith

No up or down

Grew up in Waterproof
Grew up chasing chickens in Waterproof Louisiana
 
I am down for life she said              with a near smile
I’ve been down for eighteen years

Wearing that stand-by-the-door dress
with her near smile

I’m a budget person                and a night person, a Cancer

I miss the moon             My aunt raised me

She was a budget person            When she passed

I began to do the blues unlimited            hard time

          In the ascending order of your feelings

on Moh’s scale of hardness it’s a ten   

          It’s a cold cold real cold feeling

Every morning she started with a cup of black coffee         a Pall Mall
          and a spiral notebook

It was November      the room darkened
And Mother said      Don’t turn the light on
          Cookie she called me

          Phrases saved like pieces of string

She was only 28
          cropped out of the picture

I know Nolan’s daddy died of rabbit fever
              Before he had a face on him

After inspecting the ventilation came down with gaol fever

          Phrases saved like parts of old machinery

I know Bubba fishes all night
          to bring you fresh gar and fresh goo for the senior citizens
                                                                             none of that old gar or goo


En Louisiane       we don’t stand for corruption         we demand it

        cathead biscuits fresh gar none of that old gar fried pickles lima beans
                                                                  hypocrite pie still sittin’ on the side

          then her aunt got tired of it so she cursed the spirit, then it got
          mean; whenever her aunt came back in the room the cross would
          be upside down;

          What do you know
The good governor has signed a proclamation
          asking Louisianan's to pray for rain