Four More

Photo by RP Thomas

Gone

Big Mike, late of Talent, disappeared one day.

A mechanic by trade, a “gentle bear,” he was

Last seen at the edge of town by Lizzie DeLay,

Who said Mike looked somewhat out of place.

Lizzie lived out that way and knew his face,

Had once told the mechanic to go get "fugged."

He blocked out the sun when he walked past,

Lizzie embellished in her indomitable way.

Mike was headed, as far as she could tell, fast

For the mountains and the “vast, blue horizon.”

She said, if you wanted her opinion, 

He had gone away to stay—Lizzie shrugged.

  

Big Mike

Big Mike loved Rolo,

Lizzie DeLay and the

Smell of gasoline—in no

particular order.

He ran the wrecking yard

just off Pacific Highway

Outside of Talent,

though he wasn’t the boss.

He was too mean

for that beneath his

Quiet, “gentle” demeanor,

as Lizzie and a few

Others knew quite well.

He’s “bent,” Lizzie once said.

But then Lizzie, Tex’s bartender,

wasn’t known as a saint, either,

Dead-right as she often

was.  Thence

Something happened

as it usually will,

When love and gasoline

are mixed like cheap swill.

Junkyard Dog

Big Mike’s dog Rolo was

no friend of Lizzie DeLay,

and that was okay with Mike.

A good old Boxer who

barked and barked again

at the smallest slight,

Rolo was proof certain

that a man’s best

friend is a good old dog.

So when Rolo bit Lizzie

early in the game,

the day after that first night

In Tex’s Tavern, the whole

town heard about it and

played along.  A literary

Wag quoted Bukowski:

“Love is a dog from hell.”

Though somewhat easy it was

Good enough for a few rounds

in Tex’s Tavern, Talent’s

accidental breeding ground.

The wag stayed

drunk for a week, which was

not uncommon nor profound.

Tex’s Tavern

Had Lizzie DeLay been working

the night the wag took the stage

and made fun of her, she’d have

smacked him on his kisser.

But Tex was working his bar,

“to watch the front door,” and to

guarantee at least three “profit

nights;” Lizzie worked the other four.

Tex, a big-city boy, had always

said he wanted a place out West

in a crossroads town busy enough

to make a buck, but unknown

to strangers down on their luck.

Passing through Talent in an old

Harvester bus, Tex spotted the bar on

Main Street and cried out, “The hunt

is done!”  “Hon?” Lizzie fussed, for

she was unhappy and given to doubt.

In the bar’s dim light, Lizzie saw Big

Mike when he came to inquire about

the bus, but things started slow. As Tex

parlayed the bus for a Chevrolet, Lizzie

began to sway, and soon enough, glow.

from the Talent poems

TS