      |
Autumn Leaves
volume 6 number 7
Autumn Leaves volume 6 number 7 |
I was having a hard time
so I rode my bike out to the
park.
There was a storm coming.
I sat down under an oak tree
and
offered tobacco
and asked the Thunders to get me outta here!
Sat there a
while,
the storm came close.
The wind picked up
and the leaves
danced
and you could smell them coming.
But the rain was just holding
off,
like holding off when you're making love,
holding back till she's
ready,
Then They said,
"Get up and get something to eat,
and then go
home and take a nap."
I knew what I was doing was wrong,
so I did what
They said.
Rode my bike to a little neighborhood diner.
I had a delicious
barbecue beef sandwich,
the kind with the meat cooked real soft
and
falling apart in the barbecue sauce.
With lettuce and tomato and
mayonnaise
on nice crusty crunchy French bread.
Sloppy.
Like the
Rally's ad says,
"If it don't get all over the place,
it don't belong on
your face."
The diner was a pretty popular place;
a lot of working people
on their lunch breaks were there.
There were mail carriers
and
cops
and construction workers
and sales clerks,
all eating that good
down home cooking.
I was the only one there who wasn't Black.
I sat off
to myself,
eating the sandwich
and thinking of the cow
who died so
that I could live.
The storm out there was teasing,
lots of wind and
thunder
but not much rain yet.
I finished my sandwich
and put a little
of it under a tree for Them.
Then I got on my bike
and went home to take
a nap.
Like They said.
The barbecue beef sandwich was making me
sleepy.
Soon as I got in the door
the storm came in earnest.
I lay on
the bed
and listened to the Fartbags singing
and drumming
and
dancing
and farting around out there.
They came real close a couple of
times.
So close I could almost smell their farts.
After the storm I went
outside.
There were bits of burnt wood
scattered all over the
yard.
The wood had a smooth texture
and a fruity smell.
It came from
the chinaberry tree in the corner of my yard.
I said to the
Fartbags,
"Hey, y'all missed!
You hit the tree
and you were supposed
to hit me!"
They said, "No, we didn't miss."
They said,
"This was the
closest we could come to you."
