Song of Myself #3 - Children
Song of Myself #4 - Pilot
Song of Myself #3 - Children
3. The married and unmarried children
ride home to their thanksgiving dinner,
on freeways and city streets
the unexpected and expecting
with thoughts of Mama’s cornmeal dressing
Delilah’s green beans topped with crispy
onions
sticky buns and pecan pie
Wilbur’s special blend
after - satiated
asleep through the rattle of dishes
Sam pays me cause he didn’t make the spread
a fight between Robert and his friend
until the next holiday
the children married and unmarried return
home
on thruways and country roads
some stay the night on Mama’s couch
some hit the bars
I sleep off Wilbur’s special blend
Song of Myself #4 - Pilot
4. The pilot seizes the king-pin, he
heaves down with a strong arm,
I grab another
and another
truncheons juggled
as my tug pushes a barge up the river
past deadheads
sunken boats
rotten wharves
and an old black man
asleep on the river bank
as the world’s largest catfish
nibbles his hook clean
I juggle
a wife in Orleans
mistress in KC
nibbles another at Natchez
dodging cannonballs
from a lost rebel regiment