rain-drenched outlaw dreams
come on down;
my rain-drenched imagination
is churning worms out of the dirt,
leaving them to sprawl on
two-story sidewalk backroads
& I play my dead grandmother’s banjo
over the melody of the changing tides
in my backyard;
my stomach drips & drabs like a
busted pipe
as though I drank too much last night
but I wonder
if my mind went crippled when
I dropped out of college
to become a homeless beauty queen,
representing the lost & desperate,
the starving soldiers,
the battered rain dogs
sipping strong coffee
in all-night donut shops...