W. Doug Bolden
"Crappy Dry Teeshirts"
If you are of the poetry school that maintains that poems should be about subtlety, then this poem probably isn't for you. This is a more or less direct telling of events, words and impressions surrounding my father's death.
My dad died and all I got was this
Crappy green with white letters teeshirt
And all these "How ya doin?" smiles
Miles and smiles--
Tears and beers, gin and young,
Fruit juice and chicken--
In and out, across the doubt,
Across the dry Alabama dust.
Quietly flying down interstates
Hot and June-filled. Near and over fields of
Wheat and cotton,
Peaches and cream,
Kudzu, milk and red honey,
Fields of misspent money,
And dying.
I shout but I keep it inside.
It rhymes, but not that well.
It passes, like the night,
And who the hell cares about goodbyes?
My dad died and all I got was this chance
To say "Hello" to strangers
I had forgotten about.
I feel about inside my soul.
I sigh, louder and louder all the time.
Open my hands. Stand in the lack of rain.
Blue skies for miles and smiles.
It's been blue skies for awhile.
This poem written by W. Doug Bolden.
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