Class Visit in Anacortes
Two refineries, an eyesore smelter in Anacortes.
Heard it more than once: I feel safe in Anacortes.
Watch sparks fly enthuses the Chamber of Commerce.
Water-based industry a vital infusion in Anacortes.
A book about boasting, a fox quite vainglorious,
pompous. Basho turns the other cheek in Anacortes.
Before white settlers the Kwaht-kahd’-KED, til erased
by smallpox. No more longhouses in Anacortes.
Read a poem about tacos, a Brontosaurus.
A few brown kids — noticeably absent in Anacortes.
Pencils out: share a time you witnessed injustice.
They write about Selma, not Anacortes.
Poems can spyhop like orcas; some bore us.
It’s hard to talk about race in Anacortes.
Glacier Peak’s an equal opportunity destroyer.
A lahar will reach the sea, wipe out all in Anacortes.
* * * * *
Postcard from Sunny Florida
Mai tai’s Tahitian for sin qua non. Without comparison the blackened grouper,
our sparkly-tailed mermaid server, a vision in cowboy boots and cut-offs,
asking would it be key lime or fudge, how we could, if full, slather it directly
onto our hips, which I considered as I strolled to the restroom through a soft-core
porn maze, fellas waving hello from matching Port-a-Johns, titties galore.
All week I’d been meaning to ask which was Papa’s favorite: Weeping Love Grass
or Little Bluestem, with its bearded florets. Ibises incubate their cerulean eggs
beside a cement observation tower, my hush-band a half a mile ahead while I search
through the gumbo limbo for the white-eyed vireo, no-brainer buzzy like a wren.
Tiki bars, lemon half-wheels. Another stud with his pecker hidden by a stepladder.
At the Naples Zoo we learn the smelliest monkey is the one most likely to mate.
* * * * *
Woodworking, turkey, guns
went the opening of a Facebook post of my loving Aunt June.
Four wheelers, cousins, guns.
Football, BBQ, guns.
So much to be thankful for,
she shared, like your niece jumping
into a pile of leaves, like your grandson
gnawing on a drumstick, like your daughter-in-law
taking a knee in the fading Arkansas sun,
aiming at something just out of view.